Cloudy Hope
by Qille
Summary: Darker version of movie. Flint is a cripple, Sam has a brother, and it all changes from there. Takes place before, during, and after the movie. Rated T for some dark/sad parts. Possible Brent/OC, maybe a tiny bit of Tim/OC. Some RIB situations.
1. Storms over the Sea

_A/N: My first CWACOM story. I'm scared! Please be nice! Warning: there may be some really dark parts, but this is just the beginning. By the way, I'm sorry this chapter's kinda short. I'm gonna post the next one soon. Also, Flint is 10 years old, and he is in 5th grade (like me, he's one of those younger kids with a summer birthday). Spray-On Shoes, Remote Controlled Television, and Hair Un-Balder have been invented._

**Cloudy Hope**

**Chapter 1**

**Storms over the Sea**

Thunder rumbled in the distance. Young, 10-year-old Flint Lockwood was getting ready for school. Another day in the 5th grade. Outside, his lab, which he had made larger and more complex, was silhouetted by rainclouds forming over the ocean, and the occasional flash of lightning.

Flint looked eagerly out the window; he found thunderstorms to be fascinating! He could tell just by looking at the height of the clouds that this thunderstorm would produce a lot of rain.

From downstairs, he heard his mother, Fran Lockwood, call to him. "C'mon, Flint! You don't want to miss your bus!"

"I'm coming!" yelled Flint, sprinting away from his window and to his door, grabbing his backpack and lab coat on the way.

He reached the kitchen with his bag on his back and his lab coat in his arms. He was about to run out the door to wait for the bus (and look at the storm more) when his mother called to him again.

"Flint, leave your lab coat here. I need to wash it."

"Okay Mom," said Flint, putting his coat on the kitchen table. It was a warm spring day anyway.

"Don't forget, I'm picking you up after school today. So don't ride the bus."

"Okay... So, why are you picking me up?"

"You have a doctor appointment this afternoon. Remember?"

Flint groaned. For some reason, he never really liked doctors, but that was probably because his old pulmonologist, Dr. Faris, wasn't exactly the friendliest doctor around. He had a new doctor, but he was still kinda freaked out by hospitals. "All right," he said.

Flint turned to head out the door when he remembered something. "Oh, I don't have a lunch!"

Fran picked something out of the refrigerator and picked came over to Flint. She knew that Flint's appetite was minimal at best, so she knew that this would tide him over. She put the object in his hand. It was a cup of orange Jell-O. Flint's favorite.

"Thanks Mom," said Flint, giving his mother a quick hug.

Fran kissed him on the forehead, and then there was a honk from outside.

"There's the bus," said Fran. As Flint ran out, she called: "Remember, I'm picking you up this afternoon! Don't ride the bus!"

Flint gave her a thumbs-up before disappearing onto the bus.

_A/N: Warning, the next chapter will be kinda dark... literally! Sorry this chapter's short. I wanted to end on a happy note. Also, there are only just a few dark parts in this story, but that's why it's rated T. Read and Review please! And let me know how I'm doing. =D_


	2. Crushed

_A/N: Note: Jell-O was available because there was a different Mayor (re-elections for the new mayor were the next month). Warning: this chapter is kinda dark._

**Cloudy Hope**

**Chapter 2**

**Crushed**

The storm had really struck hard when it hit the mainland. It started with a huge crash of thunder, right before the lights flickered for a minute and the rain came pouring down. Flint found it kinda hard to breathe in the humid, muggy air.

It had been sunny until about noon. Flint's class had had a guest speaker: their mayor, Mayor Collins. He had explained to them how the machines were running the sardine factory because the working conditions were dangerous. Mayor Collins had been the best mayor that Swallow Falls had had in years, but this would be the last term that he was running for. Too bad.

Now, it was the end of the school day. Flint hadn't really been picked on today, so he was in a good mood until he remembered he had to go see his doctor after school. He sat waiting in the cafeteria for his mother to come pick him up. All the students who were being picked up were in the lunch room because the rain had really picked up, and no one wanted to stand outside in that.

Flint was beginning to get worried. There weren't that many people left in the cafeteria, but Brent and his right-hand bully Daniel were still here. Flint really didn't like those two. Brent always pretended to know everything, even though he was constantly confused. Daniel always glared daggers at Flint, even when he hadn't done _anything_.

Flint and Brent were polar opposites. Flint was rail thin; Brent was kinda chunky. Flint was smart and always knew what was going on; Brent lived in his own little world where everything revolved around him, and you didn't have to know anything to get by in life. Brent always wore his light blue jogging suit; Flint stuck to his trusty lab coat. Which he didn't have today.

Daniel was a bit different than Brent. Daniel wasn't chunky like Brent, or thin like Flint, but he was somewhere in the middle, with the build of a weight lifter. He had short, red-brown hair and mean brown-green eyes. He wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he wasn't drop-dead moronic like Brent. Even though he was still in 5th grade, he was already 12, after being held back a year. He always wore a leather jacket that smelled like a doctor's office.

Daniel's full name was Daniel Faris. Dr. Faris's son. Flint was glad that Dr. Faris wasn't his pulmonologist anymore.

_Where is my mom,_ wondered Flint. He looked nervously across the room and gulped when he saw Brent and Daniel looking over at him, whispering to each other.

_Oh no,_ thought Flint. _They're coming this way!_

Brent had started to walk over to where Flint was sitting, Daniel right behind him, no doubt to torment him. Flint was finding it harder and harder to breathe. He _really_ hoped he didn't have another asthma attack again, even though he had his inhaler right in his backpack in case he needed it.

His asthma attacks had been getting more frequent and intense, and that was why Fran was taking him to see his doctor again.

Just as Brent and Daniel got within teasing range, the cafeteria door opened and Fran Lockwood walked in. Flint hopped up and ran over to her, giving her a huge hug like was custom.

"Hey, honey. How was school today," Fran whispered to Flint.

"It was fine," said Flint in a hoarse voice. "Mayor Collins came and talked to the class today. I'll tell you about it later."

Fran bent down a little and looked Flint in the eye. She noticed that his blue-purple eyes were a little glassy, and that he was looking kinda pale. She put her hand on his forehead and found him to have a bit of a fever. His breathing was kinda shaky and a bit erratic.

"Honey, are you sure you're okay? How's your asthma?"

"I'm fine, Mom," Flint insisted. "But my asthma _has_ been acting up just a bit..."

"Did you tell your teacher?"

Flint looked down and shook his head no.

"Alright, well next time you feel it acting up, you know what to do," said Fran with a slight smile.

"Okay," muttered Flint.

Fran looked at her watch. "Okay, let's get going. You've still got a doctor appointment. The storm made me late, so we've gotta go _now_."

"Okay," groaned Flint as he put on his rain coat. He glanced over his shoulder at Brent and Daniel. Both were glaring at him. He looked away, back to his mother. Fran put her hand on Flint's shoulder, and they both walked out into the rain.

**xxx**

It was clear why Fran had to drive slowly. There was next to no visibility, the rain pouring down fast and hard.

"Hey Mom, how can you see through the rain?" asked Flint.

"Honestly, sweetie, I really can't," said Fran, leaning over the wheel to try and see better, her brows furrowed with concentration.

Flint thought for a minute. He knew that most car accidents happened because the drivers couldn't see, like on rainy days or nights. He wondered if he could do anything in the future to prevent car accidents in the future.

"Mom, is it possible to drive _above_ the rain clouds?" he asked, a creative look on his face.

"I'm sure you could do it if you had a flying car."

That one innocent statement sparked an idea in Flint's brilliant mind. _A flying car!_

"I can invent that," said Flint to his mother.

"Really? How would it work?" asked Fran.

Flint opened his mouth to start explaining, but he never got a chance. A pair of headlights appeared out of nowhere from the gloom. Fran swerved to try and avoid the oncoming car, but it was too late. The other car was going _way_ too fast.

Both cars crashed head-on. It all happened in slow-motion to Flint (in Swallow Falls, the minimum age requirement to sit in the front seat of a car was 10, so Flint was in the front seat).

The cars crumpled into each other. A metal part of the car from below the dashboard collapsed in on Flint's left leg, crushing everything from a few inches above his knee, down. He felt an intense pain shoot up his leg as bones crunched under the pressure.

Before Flint even had time to scream, the windshield shattered, and there was a stinging pain on his face, running under his left eye to about a few centimeters above his mouth. Something impaled his right shoulder, and it was only then that he was able to scream. His scream was cut off by a pain in his chest, so bad that it felt like someone had punched him in the chest while he was having an asthma attack.

And then it was over. It happened in the blink of an eye. Everything was deathly still, the only sound was the rain, falling through the shattered windshield and onto Flint's bloody face.

Flint lay in an awkward position, his right arm bent in an uncomfortable way, his impaled shoulder also probably dislocated. Looking down wasn't possible; his head hurt like crazy every time he tried. All he could do was let out a low, pitiful moan.

Suddenly, Flint felt a gentle hand grip his left hand. It was Fran.

"Flint? Honey, are you okay?" Fran asked nervously.

"N...n...no," Flint whimpered. The only comfort he had was that his mother sounded relatively uninjured. Flint coughed, feeling his airway start to close up a little.

"M-m-mommy, I'm s-scared," moaned Flint.

"Don't worry, there's an ambulance on the way," said Fran in a soothing voice.

Flint didn't respond for a moment; he was focusing on trying not to black out. He felt his grip on his mother's hand start to weaken.

Fran must have sensed him slipping away, because she said in an urgent voice: "Flint, talk to me! Just stay awake!"

"I-I'm t-trying..." Flint responded weakly. Flint's grip still weakened, but his mother's strengthened.

"Flint," whispered Fran. When he didn't respond, she said in a more urgent tone: "Flint! Listen..."

Flint listened through the fog that threatened to overtake him when he heard what his mother he heard: sirens.

"Just hold on for me for a little bit longer, then you can sleep," whispered Fran. "Now honey, I need you to tell me where you're hurt."

"I-I can't m-move my head without it h-hurting. I c-can't feel my l-left leg. It h-hurts to breathe. T-there's something lodged into my r-right shoulder. I t-think there's a cut on my face, and I c-can taste the b-blood." Flint gulped, and whispered: "Everything hurts..."

"Is it your asthma that's making it hard to breathe, or do you have some broken ribs?" asked Fran.

Flint found that, with some difficulties, he could use his right hand, so he gently placed his hand on his fragile ribcage, only to hiss in pain and pull his hand away.

"I _do_ have b-broken ribs, but I can also feel my asthma acting up," said Flint, his voice almost too weak to be heard over the rain.

Flint didn't hear his mother's response, because at that very second, an ambulance and a few police cars burst through the rain and onto the scene. There was a loud commotion outside the car, and then came the sound of crunching metal.

In almost the blink of an eye, the roof of the car was gone. Flint could vaguely hear his mother talking to the paramedics. It took Flint a moment to register what she was saying: "My son! Get my son first! He's in a worse condition! Help him first!"

Flint could no longer concentrate. He wasn't getting enough oxygen due to his asthma and broken ribs, and his lips were starting to turn blue. He began hyperventilating a few seconds later. His ribs just hurt even more. He finally lost the ability to keep his eyes open, or hold his mother's hand.

Flint heard something going on on the side of the car where he was trapped. Suddenly, a pressure that he hadn't known was there before was lifted off his ribcage. That had probably been someone cutting the seat belt.

The sound of metal abuse filled the air, and the intense fiery pain returned to Flint's left leg. He couldn't help but scream, even though he knew someone was trying to free his leg. He felt his mother grip his hand; even though he couldn't grip it back, it was still comforting to know that she was still there.

After an agonizing 30 seconds, Flint's leg was free. Flint was actually glad that he was unable to look down; he _really_ didn't want to see what state his leg was in.

He felt a strong yet gentle pair of hands grab him, carefully avoiding his damaged shoulder and keeping his ribs still, and pulled him out of the smoking wreckage. He was still too weak to open his eyes, but he thought he heard someone helping his mother.

To make sure that someone _was_ helping his mother, Flint summoned all his willpower and pried his eyes open.

The first thing he saw was the body of the man that was driving the other car, lying on his back in the middle of the road, a white blanket covering his face. The man-shaped hole in the windshield of his car was an indicator that the man in the other car had not been wearing his seat belt (life lesson) and had gone through the windshield.

Flint allowed his head to roll to the side to see his mother's car. Both cars had been totaled. Flint saw a few paramedics helping his mother out of the car and onto a stretcher. She was smiling, so Flint hoped she was fine.

The paramedic that had been carrying Flint over to the ambulance put him on a stretcher. Flint was still having trouble breathing, and the paramedic must have noticed, because an oxygen mask was slipped over Flint's pale face. He stopped hyperventilating as breathing became easier.

Although he could almost breathe properly now, Flint still felt... foggy, almost as if he were about to fall asleep. Then he realized that he must be losing consciousness.

Trying to overcome the fog, Flint once again ignored the protests from his throbbing head and looked over to his side.

Because he was about to be loaded into the ambulance, his stretcher was right next to the reflective bumper. He used the bumper as a mirror to see what was wrong with his leg.

Very. Bad. Idea.

Flint stared at his leg for a moment before snapping his eyes shut. He knew that that image would haunt him until the day he died, which just might be soon.

His entire left leg had been completely mangled. It was completely covered in blood, with bits of metal still stuck in the torn flesh. It looked (and felt) to Flint like just about every bone had been completely shattered. Flint wondered if he would lose his leg. And if he didn't lose it, would he still be able to _use_ it?

Flint's mind was becoming foggier and foggier. Thinking was becoming more and more difficult. The world began to spin; a complete mass of moving, senseless colors that began to mean nothing.

And then it all went dark...

_A/N: The draft for this chapter was a complete MONSTER! Plus, I'm at a hotel writing from my dad's laptop. I hate this keyboard. You know the drill: R&R and NOBODY GETS HURT! Sorry for getting Flint and Fran in a car accident. Yes, that storm WAS important. (Now after writing this, I scared myself into wearing my seat belt all the time in the car). Stay safe! =D_


	3. Casualties

_A/N: Note that this story is in no way related to How to Train your Dragon. Any similarities are entirely coincidental! =) In this chapter you find out how bad Flint and Fran really are, and Tim does some driving that's worse than my grandmother's (which is really saying something!)!_

**Cloudy Hope**

**Chapter 3**

**Casualties**

Tim Lockwood was at work, at his job as a police officer. He was in his office when the secretary rushed in, looking frantic.

"P-p-phone, Tim," she said, on the verge of tears. Tim dropped the doughnut he had in his hand and ran into the front office. He grabbed the phone from the desk.

"Hello?"

"Who is this I'm speaking with?" asked the official-sounding voice from the other end.

"My name's Tim Lockwood."

"Well, Mr. Lockwood, my name is Dr. Jones. I'm calling from the Swallow Falls General Hospital to inform you that there's been a car accident involving both your wife and son."

Tim went pale. This was the phone call that no parent ever wanted to hear. "A-are they okay?"

"We can't quite be sure. Your wife will most likely be paralyzed from the waist, down. She had some cracked bones in her spine, and a few fractures in her skull. Your son... well, to be blunt, we fear he might not make it through the night..."

Tim stood frozen, all the color drained from his face. "What's wrong with my son." It was more of a demand than a question.

"Well," sighed Dr. Jones, "almost all of his left leg has been crushed, and it might need to be amputated. He suffered from a few broken ribs, and one rib punctured his right lung. He has asthma, correct?"

"Yes."

"It's entirely possible that he may die of asphyxiation. He got a pretty severe case of whiplash from when the cars hit, and I'm surprised a jolt like that didn't snap his neck... he might have a bit of trouble being oriented if he pulls through."

"What do you mean _if he pulls through_? Pulls through _what_?"

"Well, by the time the paramedics had gotten him to the hospital, he had already lost a lot of blood, and he wasn't responding to any of the tests. We had to put him into a medically induced coma. It was the only way to make sure he doesn't have any brain damage from the lack of oxygenated blood for so long."

Tim felt completely and totally helpless. He felt the phone slipping from his hand when the doctor on the other end started talking again.

"Sir, how fast can you get here?"

"Less than 2 minutes," said Tim, even though his office was all the way across town from the hospital; a 15 minute drive that should have been delayed by the weather.

"They're in room 183," said Dr. Jones.

"Thanks," said Tim, dropping the phone on the desk and running into the office to find his car keys.

"Tim, who's going to cover your shift?" asked the secretary from the door.

"Call the trainee, Earl. He can handle it."

Tim found his keys and ran out the door to his police cruiser, nearly running over the secretary. The 10 seconds that it took for the car to start seemed like an eternity. The second the car was running, Tim stepped on the gas, ran over the curb, hit a mailbox, and broke the speed limit all the way to the hospital. By now, the rain had let up and was now just a foggy drizzle.

Tim's car skidded on the wet roads before zooming into the parking lot of the Swallow Falls General Hospital. He almost mowed down a few old women, and parked in the closest spot to the door, which happened to be a handicap parking. Tim barely remembered to put the car in park, or turn it off. He didn't bother to lock the door, but he _did_ remember to close it.

Tim sprinted through the door faster than a man of his size should have been able to. He didn't even bother with the receptionist, instead just running down the hall marked "Intensive Care Unit" to room 183. it was only then that he stopped to gather himself and mentally prepare himself for what he was about to see.

Tim slowly pushed open the door. Time slowed to a crawl.

There were still a few nurses in the room, just making sure that Flint and Fran would be stable for the time being. A doctor walked up to Tim.

"Tim Lockwood? I'm Dr. Jones," said the doctor, shaking Tim's hand. "I just wanted to warn you: I only discussed their major injuries. They're both pretty cut up."

"Thanks, Doc," said Tim. Dr. Jones stepped to the side and allowed Tim to pass into the part of the room with the beds. The nurses finished their final checks and left. Dr. Jones stayed by the door.

Tim went up to the closest bed, and saw that it was occupied by Fran. She had a bandage around her head and cuts all over her face. She looked pale and sleepy. The heart monitor showed her heart rate was slower than average, but pretty good for someone who was just in a car accident. She just smiled sadly at Tim and gestured to the next bed. Flint's bed.

Tim slowly made his way to his unconscious son's bedside. He just barely stifled a gasp when he saw Flint. He looked so frail and broken, covered in bandages. Tim could see the slightly bloody bandages through the thin hospital shirt. There were bandages covering Flint's right shoulder and entire ribcage. From just under his left eye, running all the way to the corner of his mouth, was a line of stitches. He had suffered a broken nose from the airbag, but you couldn't tell by looking at it. There was something running down the back of Flint's neck, and it took Tim a minute to realize that it was a brace, probably to keep Flint from moving too much and stressing any more injuries. The blankets were covering Flint's legs, so Tim couldn't see the damage. The upper part of his bed was inclined so that he wasn't laying flat on his back, which is dangerous and possibly deadly if you're an asthmatic. He was being given oxygen to help with his breathing. The most alarming was the heart rate monitor. Flint's heart was beating at 250 a minute, incredibly fast, but it was extremely weak. Tim didn't know what that meant, but he knew it couldn't be good.

"Would you like to see the pictures from the x-rays of his leg," asked Dr. Jones. Tim nodded, and the doctor went to the light board on the wall. He turned it on and clipped the x-ray pictures on it.

Everything below Flint's knee had been shattered, including his actual knee and about half of his femur. Aside from the slight crack, there was no more damage above the half of the femur that had been shattered.

The force of the impact must have been incredible. It was so powerful that even the bones in Flint's Spray-On Shoes covered foot were cracked. But the shoe itself acted like a cast.

"What exactly _is_ this stuff on his feet?" asked Dr. Jones.

"It's an invention of his. He calls it Spray-On Shoes. Apparently, they don't come off."

"Well, they're pretty hard too. If it wasn't for that... Spray-On Shoe, he would have lost his leg."

Fran smiled from her bed, looking at her pale son. She _knew_ his inventions would come in handy. And now his very first invention, that he had created 3 years ago, had saved his leg, and possibly his life.

And he was safe.

For now...

_A/N: Things go a little bit further south from here, but they get better after that. Trust me. Questions, comments, concerns? Leave 'em in the reviews please! Next chapter's kinda hard for me to write, but I'll do my best. That's why some chapters will be choppy, while others will be awesome. I'll try and update again soon! Thanks! =D_


	4. Please Wake Up

_A/N: Short chapter, but it's important!_

**Cloudy Hope**

**Chapter 4**

**Please Wake Up**

Everything was dark.

Flint was aware of a fiery pain in his left leg and chest. He tried to open his eyes to see where he was, but he couldn't. It felt like they were already open, but he still couldn't see. Was he blind? He didn't remember how he got there; all he remembered was thinking about making a flying car. Where was his mom?

He started whimpering with fear, but his whimper turned into a cough. He moaned in pain. Would he ever make it out of this place?

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a pair of headlights, but when he turned, they disappeared into the gloom.

"Mom!" he called into the darkness.

**xxx**

The night she was brought to the hospital, Fran also slipped into a coma.

She had somehow felt it coming on, so around 8 o'clock at night, she asked Tim for his tape recorder. She wanted to say goodbye to Flint in case she didn't wake up.

"Tim, can I use your tape recorder?" asked Fran. Tim looked confused, but he handed it over, with a new unused tape in.

"Um... I'm gonna go move my car," said Tim.

Fran nodded.

Tim walked outside to the parking lot, pleased to see that his car hadn't been stolen or towed. After moving and _locking_ it, he came back inside.

When Tim reentered the room, Fran held out the tape to him. "Don't listen to it," she said. "It's for Flint only. When he wakes up. He'll show it to you when he's ready..."

"But... w-what if he... he doesn't wake up?" asked Tim.

Fran sighed sleepily, and whispered: "Only use it if all hope is gone."

Tim nodded and looked at the tape. He put it in his pocket. Fran was about to say something when there was a cough from the other bed.

"Mom," whimpered Flint, still asleep.

"I'm right here, sweetie... And I always will be," said Fran, unphased that her son was calling for her in his comatose state. Tim on the other hand was speechless.

Flint gave a soft sob. He coughed violently, and his face contorted with pain.

"Tim, call the doctor," said Fran. Tim pushed the "magic red button" on the wall, and seconds later, Dr. Jones came through the door. Fran gestured to Flint.

The young doctor quickly went to work. He checked all of Flint's vitals, but sighed when Flint coughed again.

He turned to Fran and Tim. "I'm gonna go get the x-ray room ready. We're gonna check him to see if his internal bleeding has gotten worse."

"Wait... Why would you need to check for that _now_?" asked Tim.

Dr. Jones held up his sleeve. There was blood on it. "He just coughed up some blood again."

With that, the doctor exited the room. Less than 30 seconds later, he came back in with a few other nurses. They moved Flint onto a stretcher and rolled him out of the room, and down the hall to the x-ray room.

Fran sighed. "He's gonna be okay," she said. She started to close her eyes. "He won't give up."

Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "Flint, _please wake up_..."

And with that, she slipped away.

"... _please_..."

_A/N: Looks like things are going even farther south. Fran's in a coma too, and Flint is still in danger of losing his leg. Please review! =)_


	5. Void

_A/N: another short but important chapter. Oh, and when Tim was searching for his car keys a few chapters back, I forgot to say that he found them under his pocket tape recorder, and he just brought the recorder along with him._

**Cloudy Hope**

**Chapter 5**

**Void**

The world swirled around him. Flint was incredibly disoriented. All around him was a dark gray fog. It wasn't as dark as before, but he still felt like he was trapped in some hellish nightmare.

He felt like he was lost. He couldn't see anything.

"Mom!" he called. There was no response. "_MOM!_" He was shaking, so close to breaking down in tears. He was starting to find it harder to breathe as his asthma started to act up again.

"Dad!" he choked out.

The fog cleared some. There was a tiny light, way way up ahead. The fog was fading to a misty blue shade. Flint coughed a bit, feeling the air become more dense and even harder to breathe in. Suddenly, his lungs were filled with cool, crisp air. He took a deep breath to calm himself. There just _had_ to be a way out of this place!

"Mom! Dad!" he tried calling again. When he got no response, he sighed. The fog had started to get darker again, and the pinprick of light he had seen was gone. He was slipping away again when...

...he felt someone grasp his hand. The fog cleared again. It was getting thinner and thinner. The light was back.

He remembered hearing people joke about not going "into the light!" but this was different. Flint didn't feel like he was dying. He was still breathing, and he could still feel the ever-present pain in his leg, and the fading pain in his chest. Pain was a good thing. It let him know he was still alive.

He was starting to hear voices now. He couldn't make them out at first, but then, as he got closer to the light, they started to become clear. He couldn't quite hear what they were saying yet, but he could recognize the people speaking.

The first man was someone that Flint had never heard before, but Flint thought he heard him say something about waking up.

_Where am I?_ Flint wondered.

The second voice he recognized immediately. It was his father.

"So, the internal bleeding isn't as bad as before?" Tim asked the man. Flint was still in a comatose state, so he only heard the words; he didn't actually _process _them.

"Correct," said the other man. "The blood he coughed up was from his lung, but that's healing nicely, and he should be able to breathe on his own by next week."

"But..." Flint felt the hand gripping his tighten a little bit. "...what about Fran?"

There was a sigh. The other man said: "One of the fractures in her skull caused some internal bleeding under her skull. She's in a coma."

Tim gasped. "W-when will she wake up?" he whispered.

There was an incredibly long pause before the man spoke again.

"_Never_..."

Flint heard no more, because the fog blackened and he was pulled back into the endless void.

_A/N: SO SO SO SORRY that this was so short. The next chapter will be longer! I promise! This chapter was kinda hard for me to write, because I wanted it to be as Flint would have heard it, and I needed to say how Fran was in this chapter. Review please! Pretty please (the physical appearance of the please might not help, but it's worth a shot)!_


	6. Going Home

_A/N: Sorry for the delay._

**Cloudy Hope**

**Chapter 6**

**Going Home**

The fog that had surrounded Flint for so long was finally disappearing. It went from misty blue to a more clear color.

"What's going on?" he muttered to himself. He spun around in circles a few times before finally seeing a tiny light up ahead. "What..."

The light suddenly grew larger, coming closer and closer, growing brighter. Flint squinted against the light. It looked a bit like... headlights!

Flint gasped and stumbled backwards, trying to get away from the light. But they grew closer, and closer still. Flint tried to run, but his left leg clenched up, and he couldn't bend his knee. He collapsed onto the foggy ground. He rolled over onto his back and yelped as the light overtook him.

**xxx**

Everything was white.

Flint groaned and blinked as his eyes adjusted. They had been closed for so long that they were sensitive to the light. Eventually, his blurry eyes focused, and he saw that he was looking at a white ceiling.

_Where am I?_

Flint slowly shifted his head around. To his left was a white curtain, and a device that looked like a television. It took him a moment to realize that it was a heart rate monitor, and the wires on the machine were hooked up to his chest.

_Am I... am I in a hospital?_

Flint actually looked down at _himself_. His left leg looked kinda bulky under the covers, but that was probably a cast. His head hurt like crazy, and every time a flash of pain ran through his head, his vision swam. Taking a deep breath, he tried to sit up, only to collapse onto his back again, gasping for breath. Reaching under his shirt, he felt the bandages on his broken ribs.

_How did I get here?_

Flint looked around again, this time looking to his right.

There, sleeping in the chair next to his bed, looking totally worn out, was Tim.

"Dad," said Flint. Well... he _tried_ to say it. He found his voice wasn't exactly _working_. Coughing to clear his throat, he tried again. "Dad," he croaked out.

Tim yawned so wide that it looked like his lower jaw came loose from his head. He blinked his eyes opened (Flint assumed) and focused on Flint. He gasped and stood up.

"Flint," he whispered, standing at Flint's bedside. "Son, are you really awake, or am I just dreaming again?"

Flint coughed before saying: "I... I'm awake. W-what happened? Why am I in the hospital? Where's Mom?"

"You don't... you don't remember?"

Flint shook his head, wincing. "What happened? Did something in my lab explode again?" The last time something exploded, it was the Hair Un-Balder prototype. Apparently the chemicals in the original were combustible. Flint had been hospitalized for his burns.

"Well, there wasn't an explosion, but there was an accident..."

"Dad," whispered Flint, scared and dizzy. "_What happened_?"

Tim sighed. "You were in a car accident. You lost a lot of blood, so you were put into a medically induced coma."

"Wha..." was all Flint could get out before he was cut off by a violent bout of coughing. Tim pressed one of the buttons on the bed, and the upper part of the bed inclined so that Flint was relatively upright. Tim handed him a glass of water, which Flint drained dry.

Flint gulped. "Dad, what day is it?"

"April 8th."

"WHAT?" gasped Flint. Out of reflex, he tried to sit up, but his busted ribcage protested greatly. "Last time I checked, it was _March_ 8th! Have I really been in a coma for a month?"

Tim nodded sadly. "A lot changed. Some good, and some not so good. But you just woke up. I don't want to put a lot of stress on you. I'll call a doctor."

Tim went and pushed the Magic Red Button, then came back to sit down with Flint.

"Are ya' hungry, skipper?" asked Tim.

Flint shook his head, looking around. His brow furrowed, and his eyes grew wide. His heart rate, which had just recently gone back to normal, sped up some. "Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Where's Mom?"

Tim sighed and looked away. "She didn't make it," he whispered. "One of the cracks in her skull caused some bleeding under her skull, and she went into a coma too. Her heart stopped about a week later..."

Flint was in shock. He didn't want to believe it. His mother _couldn't_ be dead! She just couldn't! Memories of the accident came flooding back. The last time Flint had seen her, she looked fine! She was smiling and talking as if the crash had never just happened! When was the last time he had touched her?

When she held his hand as they both lay dying. Flint squeezed his eyes shut and closed his left hand into a fist, trying to keep his mother's spirit from escaping.

He felt Tim pull him into a gentle hug. "I know Flint. I miss her too. It's okay. It'll all be okay..."

Flint let out a painful sob.

The bed to the left was empty. His mother was gone.

Forever...

**xxx**

Flint was released from the hospital a week later.

It was about 8:30 at night by the time Flint and Tim left. Flint's shoulder and ribs had pretty much healed, but his right arm was still in a sling. His leg was still in a cast, and he was walking with a crutch.

"_You might want to consider physical rehabilitation for your leg," the doctor had said an hour earlier._

"_No," Flint had said. "No more doctors or hospitals. I just wanna go home..."_

As Tim and Flint approached the car, Flint slowed down. He stopped about 10 feet away from the car. Tim looked at him, remembering something else the doctor had told him.

The doctor had explained to Tim that Flint might suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, when he woke up. With PTSD, Flint might have nightmares or be afraid of certain things that bring back memories of the traumatic event. Like cars.

After a minute, Flint gulped. He slowly limped towards the car, and tentatively got into the back seat. He buckled his seat belt, making him wince, and squeezed his eyes shut.

Tim sighed. He pulled out of the parking lot, but slowly. He didn't want to give Flint a panic attack.

After a slow, half-hour-long drive, they slowly pulled into their dimly lit driveway. Flint didn't move or relax until the car had stopped, and Tim had opened the door. Flint took a shaky breath, grabbed his crutch, and limped out.

Tim had already unlocked and opened the door, and Flint gratefully limped inside. He went straight for his room, but Tim called out to him. "Flint."

Flint turned to look at his father. Tim had pulled a small, black, rectangular object out of his pocket. It was his tape recorder.

"Your mother recorded something for you. I haven't listened to it; she said it was for you only."

Flint limped back to his father and gently took the recorder. He sadly turned, heading down the hall to his room.

"Flint," said Tim. Flint, at his bedroom door, turned again. "Son... When you cast a broken line-"

Flint cut him off. "Dad, _please_ don't say any fishing metaphors. Because the next time you say one, I'll think about this, and I just want to forget all of this..."

Tim was silent. He opened his mouth to say something, but Flint said, "Good night, Dad..."

He went into his room and closed the door.

"Flint, you are too much like your mother," said Tim to himself, looking at the picture on the fireplace mantle; the picture of Fran and Flint together.

He sadly shook his head and went to his room.

**xxx**

Flint closed the door quickly, so his father wouldn't see the tears forming in his eyes. He leaned against the cool wood, taking deep breaths.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was his lab coat sitting neat and folded on his bed. He shakily limped over to his bed and slipped his coat on.

Not bothering to change into pajamas, Flint crawled into his bed and under his covers.

_It would have just been easier for me to lose my leg than to lose my mom,_ thought Flint.

He looked at the tape recorder in his hand, illuminated by the light of the full moon creeping in through the cracks in the blinds.

He hit play, and his mother's soft, quiet voice filled the empty room. Tears flowed freely from Flint's tired eyes.

That night he cried himself to sleep, listening to the sound of his mother's voice...

_A/N: Awww... Poor Flint. T-T_


	7. New Friends, Old Enemies

_A/N: I now introduce my alter ego!_

**Cloudy Hope**

**Chapter 7**

**New Friends, Old Enemies**

Flint went back to school about a week later. It had taken him about 4 hours, but he had made up 4 weeks of school work. He was pretty much used to his crutch, and the doctor said that he should be able to get the cast off next month. He couldn't wait; he really wanted to see if he would be able to walk right again.

Flint limped outside for his first day back at school. He was wearing his usual attire: orange shirt, long pants, Spray-On Shoes, and lab coat, which now only just touched his ankles.

He limped outside to where his dad was waiting by the car. Flint was about to force himself in when he noticed something: Tim's police cruiser wasn't there.

"Dad, where's your cop car?" asked Flint.

Tim sighed. "I'll tell you on the way to school. Let's go."

Flint groaned. He had hoped that by striking up a conversation, he could put off having to get in the car. But, since there was really no use fighting it, Flint tossed his crutch in the back seat, then climbed in himself.

_I wonder what everyone's gonna think. I must like like a mess,_ thought Flint. _My leg's in a cast, my arm's in a sling, I've still got a few cracks in my ribs, and I have a scar on my face!_ Flint fingered the scar on his left cheek where the glass from the shattered windshield had cut. The stitches had come out when he was still comatose, and they had left a long, thin, white scar.

Tim started up the car, and Flint tensed up like he always did. Buckling his seat belt was much less painful than it had been a week ago, but it still hurt enough to make him wince.

"So... Dad... What happened to the other car?" asked Flint as he gripped the seat so hard that his fingers turned white.

"Well, I returned it." It was only then that Flint noticed that Tim wasn't wearing his police officer uniform, but instead was wearing a light blue short-sleeved shirt.

"Why? Did you get fired? !" gasped Flint.

"No, I didn't get fired... I quit."

"What? Why did you quit?"

"Flint, let's talk about this later. But don't worry. The Mayor was opening some new stores, and one of them was a Bait and Tackle shop. You know how much I fish, so I applied for the job, and I got it."

"But _why_ did you quit?"

Tim sighed again. "Well, since your mother is... no longer around, and there's hardly anyone to look after you, I quit. If I didn't, then you would have been home alone until sunset every day. Plus... the Tackle Shop had a bit better pay..."

Flint narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He knew that cops got pain twice as much as those store owners. So... why did his dad quit?

Before Flint could question his dad any further, Tim pulled up at the school. He turned around in his seat and looked at Flint.

"Do you... need any help with anything?" he asked.

"I've got it," Flint whispered back. He opened the door, steadied himself on his crutch, and limped inside. Back to Hell.

**xxx**

The classroom was mostly empty when Flint came in.

_Good. I'm early._

Flint was grateful that his seat was in the very back of the room. He tried to look non-conspicuous as he limped down the desk isle. He was actually surprised to find that his seat didn't have cobwebs on it. After all, he _had_ been gone for 5 weeks.

Flint almost didn't see the girl sitting at the desk next to him. Until she spoke up, that is.

"Well, hello to you too, hop-along," said a sarcastic voice to Flint's right. Flint looked up, surprised to hear a new voice. To his right sat a young girl with a tan and short blonde hair. She was grinning, showing a lopsided smile and perfectly straight teeth. Her forest-green eyes shone brightly. She was wearing a plain, yellow, short-sleeved shirt and a baggy pair of long sweatpants. She was also wearing worn-out black boots, and she looked to be just as tall as Flint, and just as skinny.

"Uh... hi," stammered Flint. How long had she been living here?

"Well, aren't ya gonna introduce yourself?" the girl asked. Flint noticed she had a light Southern accent, so she had probably moved here from the States.

"I'm Flint. Flint Lockwood."

The girl stuck out her left hand. "He Flint, my name's Emma!" She was talking quickly, as if she had just had too much sugar.

Flint shook her hand. "So... um... how long have you been living here?"

"I just moved here last week, but I've already heard a lot about what happened to you," said Emma.

"Oh you... you did?" Flint blushed a bit and sank lower in his seat.

"Yeah, I heard about the car accident. Did you hear that your Mayor actually passed a new law that you have to be 12 to ride in the front seat of a car?"

"Wait, what? I didn't hear about that!" exclaimed Flint, looking up at her.

Emma looked confused. "Really? He passed it a week after the accident. I thought you would-"

"I was in a coma for 4 weeks," whispered Flint.

"Oh..." Emma was quiet for a moment. She looked down at Flint's leg. "Uh... about your leg, I feel you pain."

Now it was Flint's turn to look confused. "You feel my pain? You've-"

Flint never got to finish that sentence. He had been so busy talking to Emma that he hadn't seen the two figures coming down the desk isle until it was too late. Someone kicked his bad leg, and he yelped in pain. Spinning around in his seat, Flint gulped when he saw Brent and Daniel standing over him. Daniel was the one who had kicked him.

"Ooohhh, that was _low_," said Emma. "Kicking the cast?"

"What do you want?" asked Flint, trying to sound like he wasn't scared stiff.

"I've got a bone to pick with you," said Brent, pointing his chubby finger in Flint's face.

Flint sighed. He had seen this coming. "You're angry that you're not allowed to sit in the front seat anymore."

"You know it," growled Brent, leaning in close. Flint tried not to gag. Brent smelled like sardines.

"Why," gasped Flint, "is it _my_ fault that I was in a car accident? Do you really think I wanted that to happen?"

"Well,_ I_ don't think it was _your_ fault," said Daniel, an evil smile spreading across his smug face. His eyes were still shooting daggers.

"What?" whispered Flint, even though he had a sneaking suspicion that he knew what Daniel was talking about. Brent actually started looking a bit concerned, and he took a step back as Daniel leaned in.

"_I said_," whispered Daniel in an evil voice, "I'm not blaming _you_. I'm blaming your mother."

Flint's face went blank, his eyes wide. Brent's jaw dropped at that low blow. Emma gasped and stood up. Daniel's maniacal grin widened, his eyes narrowing.

Suddenly, Daniel found himself on his side on the ground. His ankles hurt like crazy. "WHAT THE F-" was all he got out before he saw the end of Flint's crutch an inch from his nose.

"Take it back," Flint said, his voice emotionless, hard as steel.

"Or what," growled Daniel, slowly sitting up, ignoring the throbbing pain in his head from where he hit the floor.

"Or I'll use my crutch as a bat and your face as the ball."

Daniel knew that Flint wasn't kidding. But, while he was sitting up, he also noticed that Flint was standing, and since he was wielding his crutch like a firearm, he was off balance.

Rage filled Daniel at the thought of being overpowered by Flint, of all people! Suddenly, Daniel was up on his feet and he knocked Flint back. Before gravity took over, Daniel grabbed Flint by the front of his shirt and lab coat and lifted him off the ground, which wasn't really all that hard, considering the fact that Flint only weighed half as much as Daniel. Flint dropped his crutch in surprise, and Daniel kicked it away.

"Listen up, pip-squeak! I'm in charge here, so you better watch yourself!"

"Or what?" growled Flint, his jaw set. "I've already had the worst day of my life, and you can't do any worse!"

"Let's just see about that?" threatened Daniel. He pulled his fist back, prepared to break Flint's recently-healed nose, when...

"DANIEL FARIS!" shrieked Mrs. Johnson, their teacher. She had walked into the room at just the right moment. Daniel dropped Flint, who half-collapsed, using his desk to hold himself up. "Come with me," said said.

Daniel snarled at Flint as he slunk past, towards the front of the room. Brent just stared before slowly making his way back to his seat. He had never seen Daniel act like _that_ before, and it was kinda unnerving.

Flint took a shaky breath. Emma shook her head and retrieved Flint's crutch for him.

"Don't listen to that fart," said Emma. "He doesn't know what he's talking about."

Flint didn't say anything. He just nodded. It was his first day back in 5 weeks, the day technically hadn't even started yet, and it already sucked.

How could this day get any worse?

But at least he had made a friend.


	8. Uninvited Guest

_A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update. I'm in another hotel. =)_

**Cloudy Hope**

**Chapter 8**

**Uninvited Guest**

Flint's day didn't get much better when his teacher announced that the Mayor was coming. At least Daniel didn't come back to class. He was probably suspended again.

"Do you have any idea why Mayor Collins would be coming?" Flint whispered to Emma.

"Um... I think there's something you should know," said Emma nervously.

"What is it?" asked Flint.

"Well-"

Emma never got to finish warning Flint. At that moment, the door opened and a man walked in. he was wearing a formal, dark blue business suit, and he was extremely short; in fact, he was about as tall as Flint had been in 3rd grade. The man had greasy brown hair and a ridiculous hairdo. He just walked in like he owned the place.

"Who is _that_?" Flint whispered to Emma. Emma gulped, but someone else answered for her.

"Children," said Mrs. Johnson, "this is Mayor Shelbourne. He's agreed to be our guest speaker today."

Flint clamped his hand over his mouth in an attempt to conceal his shock. He had forgotten all about the elections. They must have happened while he was comatose. And _this_ guy won?

"Hello students," said Mayor Shelbourne. Flint shuddered. He didn't like the way the mayor had said that. He had a bad feeling about this guy.

Mayor Shelbourne continued to talk about politics and all the other stuff that Flint didn't care about. Emma was scribbling something on a piece of paper, but everyone else had their gazes fixed on the man in the front of the room. Brent, who was sitting up front, was wide-eyed and practically drooling.

Emma looked up from the paper she was writing on, folded it up, and tossed it to Flint. He looked down at the note and quietly unfolded it.

_E: I tried to warn you. This guy won the elections by a landslide, but I bet he cheated._

Flint wrote back: _F: I don't like the looks of this guy. He looks... shifty._ He tossed the note back.

A few seconds later, the note landed on his desk again. _E: I bet he's a criminal. Maybe he had people at gunpoint when they were voting._

_F: My dad used to be a cop._

_E: Used to? Why isn't he anymore?_

_F: He quit._

_E: Oh... um... sorry. I shouldn't have gone there._

_F: You're fine. So, what do you think of the new Mayor?_

_E: Stumpy._

Flint clamped his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Emma looked satisfied. That was when Flint heard the Mayor stop talking about himself and start talking about the new laws he had already passed.

"And I am pleased to tell you," Mayor Shelbourne said, "that there are going to be _big_ changes around here, starting with this: the sardine factory will once again be opening for people to work in!"

"WHAT? !" gasped half the class, including Flint and Emma. Brent smiled and leaned back in his chair. He _had,_ after all, had the factory named after him.

"MY UNCLE **DIED** IN THAT FACTORY! ! !" a student yelled from the other side of the room. The girl who had yelled stood up. She had strawberry-blonde hair that was pulled back in a ponytail, and bright green eyes. She had a pair of glasses clenched in her hand.

"You CAN'T open the factory again! Everyone's gonna DIE!" the girl continued yelling.

"Well young lady, when _you_ become the mayor, then _you_ can close the factory again and let the whole town starve," said Mayor Shelbourne.

"I'm never gonna become the Mayor!" shouted the livid girl. "My mom and I are moving far away from here tomorrow!" The girl grabbed her backpack and ran to the door. She ran into the hallway, but before slamming the door shut, she turned around and yelled: "I HOPE I NEVER SEE YOUR UGLY FACE AGAIN AND I HOPE YOU FALL INTO YOUR FACTORY FURNACE!" She slammed the door and ran down the hall.

Emma clapped and yelled "TESTIFY!" even though the girl was already gone.

Mayor Shelbourne couldn't have looked more shocked if a tiny pink sardine on a plate had jumped up and bit him. Had a little ten year old girl just had a conniption and told him off?

Meanwhile in the back of the room, Flint and Emma were laughing so hard that they were on the verge of convulsing. They had both started hyperventilating already. In fact, now half the class was laughing. The other half just sat in shock.

Slowly, some of the other kids joined in laughing, and even Mrs. Johnson began laughing nervously. Soon, everyone but Mayor Shelbourne and Brent were laughing.

"Everybody, please! Quiet down!" shouted the mayor. However, his shouts were lost in wave after wave of laughter.

Emma, her laughter settling down a bit, glanced over at Flint. That was when her laughter died completely. "Flint, what's wrong?"

Flint had stopped laughing. He was completely pale, and he was gripping the desk with his free hand and his chest with his right hand. Emma could hear him gasping for breath.

"Are you okay?" Emma asked.

Flint barely heard her. He had been laughing and having fun, but suddenly, his chest had tightened and breathing became increasingly difficult.

"Flint, do I need to take you to the nurse?" asked Emma, putting her hand on his shoulder, gently so as not to stress the injury. Flint shook his head. He reached down to his backpack, looking for his inhaler. But it wasn't there.

_Oh no,_ thought Flint. _Where's my inhaler? !_

Suddenly, Flint remembered what happened to it, and had to refrain from slapping his forehead. It had been in his old backpack, which had been completely destroyed in the accident.

Flint felt a panic attack coming on. He was lightheaded from being slowly deprived of oxygen. It took him a minute to realize that Emma was talking to him.

"Flint? Flint! Flint, tell me what's wrong!" she said, gently shaking his shoulder a little bit.

"I... I..." Flint found it was impossible to speak. Instead, he grabbed his pencil and the piece of paper that was still on his desk. He only wrote 4 words. "Asthma! No inhaler! HELP!"

Emma read it and started to stand up, but something happened. Flint felt something in his chest and lungs relax again, and his breathing trouble dissipated. "Wait," he gasped. Emma froze.

Flint took in a few deep breaths as precious oxygen flooded his system. "Sorry for scaring you," he gasped. "My asthma has been doing that a lot recently."

Emma sat down again with a huff. "Well, if you're _that_ much of an asthmatic, where's your inhaler?" As she asked this, she pulled her _own_ inhaler out of her backpack.

"You're asthmatic too?" asked Flint.

"Not as bad as you. Besides, I only get an asthma attack whenever I accidentally eat something with coconut in it."

"Uh... Why coconut?" asked Flint.

"I'm allergic to coconuts," said Emma.

"Well, I'm allergic to strawberries," said Flint. "That was how I found out I had asthma in the first place."

Emma sighed, then looked at the clock. "When's lunch? All this talk about food is making me hungry."

Flint looked up at the clock too. "Uh... I think the bell should ring in about 45 seconds."

"Good." Emma looked up to the front of the room. Mayor Shelbourne was still trying to gain control over the class, and Mrs. Johnson had started to help out too. "Uh, what do _you_ think of the Mayor?"

Flint looked at the new Mayor. He was waving his stubby hands around in the air, trying to get the students' attention. "He has weird hands," noted Flint.

Emma looked at his frantic hands too. "They look kinda square and fake. I bet he's a robot."

Flint laughed, then winced as his chest tightened up and reminded him not to get too excited. "Do you know who that girl was? I've never seen her in here before."

"I don't know her, but I'm sad that she's moving. I bet she would have made an awesome friend. Um, she got transferred from a different class into this one. I heard that she and her mom are moving to New York City!"

"How do you learn all of this so fast?" asked Flint.

"'Cause I'm awesome," she said, faking modesty.

"Well, Oh Awesome One, do you wanna see my lab?" asked Flint.

"I've seen your lab! It's pretty dang hard to miss," said Emma.

"Not what I meant," said Flint. "Do you wanna see inside?"

"Sure. I heard you invent some pretty cool stuff in there."

"If you count objects of mistakes and accidental destruction as _cool_, then yeah. And what _don't _you hear?" asked Flint.

"When adults talk to me," deadpanned Emma.

Flint smiled. "Well, if you wanna come by after school, I'll-" he stopped short, remembering something. "Aw crap!"

"What's wrong?" asked Emma.

"My lab. I forgot! The only way to get in is with the ladder. I can't climb a 50 foot ladder," he said, gesturing to his shattered leg.

"Neither can I," said Emma. "Is there a different way in, like an elevator or something?"

"Well, I _do_ have a secret entrance for big things that I couldn't carry down the ladder, and I just put in the elevator lifter, but I haven't tested it yet. It might not work at all, or it might even collapse."

Emma thought for a minute. "It's worth it."

**DING DING DING**! The bell rang and the class got up to go to lunch. Mayor Shelbourne had given up on regaining control.

"Ready to go?" asked Emma, standing up with her brown paper bag in her hand.

"Uh... I'm gonna skip out on lunch today. I need to check something out," said Flint, standing and leaning on his crutch.

"Okay," said Emma. They walked to the door, and Emma followed the crowd towards the lunch room. Flint was about to turn when he noticed something. Emma walked with just the tiniest limp, that couldn't be seen unless you were looking for it. But she soon disappeared in the crowd. Flint shrugged. He would see her later.

Flint limped down the hallway in the opposite direction of the cafeteria. He was heading to the library, where copies of recent newspapers were kept.

The second he walked through the library doors, he saw the girl again. She was standing in the corner by the newspapers, reading the front cover of one. As Flint limped over to where she was, she looked up, probably hearing his crutch. When she saw him, she blushed and look away shyly.

Flint just stood there awkwardly. Eventually, he came up with the only thing he could think of. "That was pretty awesome, what you said back there. I wish you could have seen the Mayor's face."

The girl blushed again. "Thanks," she said, giggling. "I just... I hate it when innocent people get hurt because of... uh... _unsafe_ conditions."

"Yeah, that sucks," he muttered. Flint cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Um... I'm Flint."

"I'm-" she was cut off when a woman with long blonde hair and green eyes walked through the library doors. "Oh, that's my mom. I gotta go. Thank you," she said as she dropped the paper she was holding on the table and ran to her mother.

Flint felt a pang of sadness, seeing the girl hug her mother. As she walked out, Flint looked at the paper that the girl had been reading, and he gasped. There, on the front page, was a picture of his mother's car. He looked at the date on the paper. March 9th. The day after the crash.

Flint stood staring at the picture for a moment more, then dropped the paper as if it had burnt him. The wreck looked unsurvivable. He wondered how he had made it.

Suddenly feeling weary, Flint covered the picture with other papers. Looking at the pictures on other papers, Flint saw nothing much... until...

He gasped. "What happened when I was gone?"

_A/N: No prizes given to those who can guess who the angry girl was. ;) R&R please!_


	9. Home away from Home

_A/N: Of course it was Sam. I originally was just gonna have that be some random kid, but I realized it made more sense later on in the story if the kid was Sam. Now, I have an incredibly important question: Should I add supernatural into this story? It is critical that you the reviewers answer this question! Yes, I am also allergic to coconuts, and I gave Emma a few of my own personality traits, but she and I are totally different. Thank you. =)_

**Cloudy Hope**

**Chapter 9**

**Home away from Home**

Flint limped into the cafeteria and found Emma, sitting at a table in a corner by herself... asleep. Flint slapped a copy of the newspaper he borrowed down on the table. Emma jolted awake.

"What in the-"

"Emma, look at this!" exclaimed Flint, sitting down across from her. He flipped the paper over so Emma could see it.

"So?" she asked, looking at the picture. The picture showed Mayor Shelbourne standing in front of the sardine factory, holding a pair of giant golden scissors that were probably bigger than him.

Emma yawned, then looked closer at the picture. "Hey, I was there when that was taken. Stumpy almost dropped those things on his foot. His face was purple from the effort to hold them up. Guess he didn't want to use his freakish robot strength in public."

"No, I'm not talking about the picture. Look at the passage below it."

Emma held up the paper and quietly read out loud. "_Newly elected Mayor, Albert Shelbourne, reopens the sardine factory to the public, so 'jobless people can have a valuable occupation_.'" Emma looked up at Flint, forgetting to laugh at Mayor Shelbourne's funny first name. "Just where is this going?"

Flint took the paper back. "Listen. _Due to the cost of the reopening project, Mayor Shelbourne is cutting the production of all products from the factory, _except_ sardines!_ Which are the worst products that the factory makes!"

"Wait, the factory makes more than just sardines?" asked Emma.

"Yeah. They made a bunch of different stuff. Tuna, salmon, cod, all that stuff that makes me gag. But their main product was sardines. I guess it's because they're the cheapest to produce and because there are hundreds of them out there in the harbor," explained Flint.

"Egh. Sardines are so gross," said Emma, her face contorting with disgust.

"That's not all. It says that _the costs of the project is still too great, even with the reduced products. The Mayor has decided to cut the shipments of food!_"

Emma had taken a sip from her water bottle, and she now did a spit-take. "Say that again? I hope I heard you wrong!" exclaimed Emma.

"We're not getting any more food from the States! _The Mayor is gonna starve the TOWN!_" Flint suddenly stopped his rant when he realized that the entire cafeteria had gone completely quiet. Everyone had heard him shout, and they were all quietly staring at him.

It was so quiet that you could have heard a mosquito fart; the air was so thick with tension that you could probably cut it with a knife. Emma cleared her throat and muttered: "Awwwkwaaard," through her teeth.

The next few seconds were some of the longest ones of Flint's life. He was being stared down by everyone. Brent was glaring the hardest, a smug grin on his round face. Flint knew what they were all thinking; they were thinking the same thing they had been thinking ever since that day in the 2nd grade, the day he showed everyone his Spray-On Shoes. They were thinking he was a freak. He was different. They all knew he was different.

After the three seconds of eternity, Flint was _literally_ saved by the bell. The bell rang, and Flint grabbed his crutch. He limped out as quickly as he could, with Emma right behind, all of the 5th grade staring after them.

**xxx**

"... and if they're capable of _that_ much discrimination in elementary school, then we'll be eaten alive in middle school!"

Flint stopped his rant and leaned against a chainlink fence. He started gasping again.

"Flint, calm down! Don't get too worked up," warned Emma.

Flint took a few deep breaths before regaining the ability to breathe, and he and Emma continued on their walk home. It had most definitely been the longest day of Flint's life, and he was glad to get it over with.

"I'm fine," he said, looking at Emma, who still looked concerned. She just nodded a bit.

After a few minutes of limping in silence, Flint saw his lab. "There it is," he said to Emma.

"Coooool," muttered Emma.

Flint glanced over at the watch on Emma's arm and saw that it was about 3:30. His dad didn't get off work at the shop for another hour.

They came up to the fence and Flint opened the latch. He and Emma stepped inside, into Flint's back yard. Emma was floored by how large and impressive his lab was.

"This is where I normally get in," said Flint, butting his hand on the ladder. He sighed sadly. "I should probably install an elevator."

"Oh, can I help?" asked Emma excitedly.

"You can invent?" asked Flint.

"Well, no, but I can help with the mechanics, y'know, with welding and all that stuff."

"How in the world did you learn to _weld_? You're only in 5th grade!"

"My dad owned a metal shop before we moved here. He taught me how to weld."

"You'd seriously help me install an elevator?" Flint asked, shocked.

"'Course. I'll help you install both! So, where's your other entrance?"

"Right," said Flint, forgetting about the elevator he had already installed. He limped around to the other side of the large metal structure holding up the lab. On the other side, right against the metal structure, was a run-down wooden shed.

"Here it is," said Flint. He opened the door, and Emma gasped. Inside, the shed only had three walls, and where the fourth should have been, right across from the door, was a large open door. It led to the center of the metal structure, which must have been hollow, and to a raised circular steel platform. This must have been the lift.

"Okay, this is so cool! Are we actually _under_ your lab right now? !" gasped Emma.

"We're actually just at the bottom of the metal structure that the lab up. It's hollow in the very center, so I tried building an elevator," explained Flint.

"Tried?" asked Emma.

"Well, I don't think it works," said Flint.

"Well, let's try it!" she exclaimed.

Flint gulped, but he stepped on the lift, followed by Emma. Flint threw a switch on the wall, and the elevator lurched up about 2 feet before making a horrible crunching noise and grinding to a halt.

"Well, that was fun," said Emma. Flint just sighed.

"Well, I guess this failure was better than my last one. This didn't explode," said Flint, upset that Emma wouldn't be able to see his lab.

"Hey, that wasn't a failure," said Emma, giving him a light playful punch on his uninjured shoulder. "It was pretty fun. Almost like a rollercoaster!"

Flint slid off the lift. "Well, I wouldn't know. I've never ridden a rollercoaster before."

Emma sat down with her legs hanging off and gasped. "Oh right... they don't have rollercoasters here..." She shook her head. "When we get older, you'll have to come with me to the States. We'll go to some amusement park, and we'll ride the biggest rollercoaster there!"

Flint smiled at that thought. "Does anyone in your family live in the States?"

"Well, I live here with my mom and my grandparents. I have some cousins who live in the States. That's where my home away from home is," said Emma with a smile.

Flint thought for a minute. Home away from home? Suddenly, he gasped. "Emma, I know how you can see a part of my lab!"

"Emma slid off the lift. "How?"

It was Flint's turn to smile. "Follow me!" With that, he left through the shed door.

**xxx**

Flint limped through the forest, followed quietly by Emma.

"Where are we going?" asked Emma.

"Oh, nowhere," grinned Flint. They walked in comfortable silence for a few minutes. After a while, Flint decided to strike up a conversation.

"So... you just live with your mom and grandparents?" Emma nodded. "W-what about your dad? Or is that too much of a personal question?"

Emma smiled sadly. "My dad's not... here... anymore... He died in a fire at his shop... But the rest is a sad story for a rainy day, so let's get off _that_ topic. I promise I'll tell you later."

"O-kay," muttered Flint. They continued on in silence for a while. Flint looked around. He hadn't been in the forest in a while. Because it was spring, it was warm and the flowers were blooming. It was beautiful.

"What's that?" asked Emma, looking at something up ahead.

Flint saw what she was looking at and he smiled. "My home away from home."

They came into a clearing, and in the clearing stood a smaller version of Flint's lab, about half as wide and three feet off the ground instead of 50.

"Okay, love the height. I have to admit, I've got acrophobia," said Emma.

"Fear of heights? And you love rollercoasters?"

"Fear of ladders," said Emma. "Long story, painful memories... I'd rather not bring it up."

Flint shrugged, and walked up to his lab. He hopped up onto the ledge. "I guess this is my little fortress," he said.

Emma climbed up and sat down on the ledge next to Flint. "When was the last time that you came out here?"

He shrugged. "A few months ago. C'mon, I'll show you inside."

Flint stood up and limped inside. Emma followed.

Inside, it was kinda crowded. There were little mechanisms everywhere, but what interested Emma the most were the walls. There were multiple black scorch marks, and in one spot, there was even a Flint-shaped dent in the wall.

"What _happened_ in here?" asked Emma.

"Well, I built this a year ago because I was experimenting with creating an EMP device just in case one of my electronic inventions went postal like the Remote Controlled Television."

"Uh... I know I'm gonna sound stupid, but what's EMP?" asked Emma.

"EMP means electromagnetic pulse. An EMP would short-circuit any electrical device by the pulse it creates, and I was designing one to only work specifically on my own inventions so I could stop them if they ever malfunctioned like that.

"But the problem was, to create an EMP device was kinda dangerous, especially since I was only in 4th grade. If it exploded, it would probably give off radiation. So I built this second lab out here to work on explosives in. that dent in the wall was from the first test run of the EMP device... It didn't turn out so well."

"Um... what about the radiation?"

"Well, that's what _this_ is for," explained Flint, stepping over the clutter and pointing to a gauge on the wall. "This is a Geiger counter. It measures the amount of radiation in the air. It's in the green zone now, so it's safe. If it's in the yellow zone, then I know to get out. If it's in the _red_ zone... I'm dead."

"Well, we better keep it out of the red!" exclaimed Emma.

"Exactly!" Flint looked around. "Y'know, I'll probably make this place the same size as my other one."

Emma looked at some of the stuff strewn all over the floor. She noticed something, and she bent down and picked it up. It looked like a tiny motor, about the size and shape of a fishing reel. "What's this?"

Flint looked at it. "I don't really remember..."

Emma examined it at a few different angles. "Y'know... I think with the right adjustments, I can make this into a motor for one of your new elevators! I mean, you can't have that ladder for your whole life! It's just not... awesome enough!"

"I see where you're coming from," said Flint. "If you do use that, can you use it for my secret elevator? I only need the secret one to go up and down, and that one looks like that's the only way it can go."

"Yeah, it'll only go up and down, but I can reinforce it to give it extra power. What were you planning for your other elevator?"

"Well, I wanted to do a super-fast, super-awesome tube elevator, and it should have a kinda secret entrance, like a..." Flint thought of the Port-A-Potty that he had found a year ago after it had washed up on the beach after a hurricane. "... like a Port-A-Potty! But not one you crap in. It could go under the outhouse, and then come up a few feet away and go up into the lab!"

"Sounds awesome... but how exactly do you plan to make it work?" asked Emma.

"I wanna try and use magnets. If we ring the inside of the tube with magnets, and put magnets on the outside of the elevator, then when the elevator goes up or down, the magnetic strip right above it elevator would activate, pull it closer, and the one that the elevator just passed would switch poles and it would repel the elevator, so it would go even faster! The more people in it, the slower it goes, or I could control from the inside on a panel how magnetic I want the strips to be!"

"Wow... that's elaborate... you really just came up with that?" asked Emma. Flint nodded eagerly. Emma thought for a second. "I can make it work."

"Awesome!" Flint noticed Emma watch. It was getting close to 4:30. "We'd better go."

As they walked away from the lab and back to the town, Flint and Emma discussed some of Flint's future inventions.

"You wanna know something crazy?" asked Emma.

"Shoot," said Flint.

"Well, when I was in the 3rd grade, I used to come up with ideas for little inventions all the time. Actually, I came up with this one that I think you could actually do."

"Don't leave me hanging, what is it?"

"Well, I was thinking about this little book that I read when I was younger, where there was a town where it rained food! I can't really remember what the book was called, but it gave me an idea. An invention that could make it rain food."

About a billion different designs popped into Flint's mind, all of them more crazy than the next. The designs in his mind seemed a lot like a ton of blueprints scattered on a table. "How did _you_ imagine it would work?" he asked.

"Well, I thought of one of those water guns, and inside were tons of super dehydrated cheeseburgers! They would be so dehydrated that they were the size of a speck of dirt! Then, on a cloudy day, you would shoot all of the particles into the sky with the super high-powered gun, and the clouds would hydrate it, and it would rain food!"

The inventive wheels in Flint's mind were spinning out of control as thoughts of an awesome food-producing invention flooded his thoughts. He could do it, but it would be pretty complicated.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Flint said: "I can definitely do something like that, but it'll take a while. Actually, I think I should wait until I'm older to start it. That way I'll have the experience, and it'll turn out awesome!"

"That's gonna be so awesome!" said Emma.

Flint looked over at her and smiled. He had been gathering the nerve to ask her something for a while, and he finally did. "Emma? Do you wanna be my lab partner?"

Emma stopped, her mouth agape. She stared at Flint for a minute, and then hugged him so hard she might have re-broken a rib. "You seriously mean it? Oh, thank you thank you!"

"No... problem... Lungs... collapsing... can't... breathe!"

"Oh, sorry!" she exclaimed, releasing Flint.

"No problem. We had better get back before my dad freaks out on me. He's probably home by now."

"Maybe our parents should meet," suggested Emma. "My mom's a bit... nutty."

"And my dad's an overprotective paranoid technophobe," said Flint.

"I feel your pain there," said Emma. "My mom's overprotective and she doesn't understand mechanics whatsoever. She's tiny, and I'm almost as tall as her!"

"I doubt I'll ever be as tall as my dad. I'll be lucky if my left leg ever even _grows_!"

"Did the bones get crushed, or jammed in," asked Emma.

"Crushed," gulped Flint.

"Then your leg will probably grow, but I bet your left leg will be super skinny, and your right one will just be normal skinny."

"Good. I really wouldn't want to go around with just one leg."

Emma stopped walking and stared straight ahead. "Don't make fun of people who lost a leg. My cousin... a few months back, she lost her entire right leg from a shark attack."

"Oh God, I-I'm Emma, I didn't know-" stuttered Flint.

Emma smiled a bit and waved him off. "It's okay. You didn't know. But she's definitely doing better now."

Flint sighed, feeling really awkward. He looked at Emma's watch again and saw that it was 5:00. his dad was probably freaking out by now. "Um, do you have a cell phone?"

"No... actually, I don't think I know _any_ 5th grader that has a cell phone."

"Crap. My dad's gonna freak!"

Flint limped back as fast as he could with Emma stumbling along behind him.

"Y'know, I bet you could just build your own cell phone," Emma called up to him.

"I'll build that right after I invent the Flying Car!"

_A/N: Okay, I swear on my life that when I was in 3rd grade I thought up an invention that Emma described, and then, like 4 years later when I first saw the CwaCoM commercial on TV, I was so peeved that someone else came up with an invention similar to mine, but when I realized it was CwaCoM, I forgot to be peeved and I was excited! So again, SHOULD I ADD SUPERNATURAL IN THIS STORY? R&R please. =D_


	10. Flying Car

_A/N: SORRY SORRY SORRY for taking so long to update! But you know, with the nice weather and all... I'll just shut up and get on with the story. Prepare for a massive time jump all the way to the summer after 9th grade!_

**Cloudy Hope**

**Chapter 10**

**Flying Car**

"Okay, just go right along this like, straight across. Slow down some, you're gonna... WATCH YOUR HAND!" screamed Emma.

"AAHHH!" screamed Flint. He dropped the welding torch, which fell to the floor with a clatter. He yanked the goggles off his face and clutched his right hand.

Emma shut off the torch and pulled Flint into the bathroom. She turned the water in the sink on freezing cold and forced Flint's hand under it.

"I told you you should have worn the gloves," Emma chided.

Flint whimpered a bit. "I thought you were gonna teach me to weld _without_ hurting myself!"

"You could use a bit of practice. Where do you keep the first aid kit?" asked Emma, looking around.

"Under the sink," groaned Flint. Emma bent down and reached around Flint's leg, pulling the first aid kit out. She grabbed a roll of bandages and some cream to treat burns. She took Flint's hand out from under the water and carefully dried it off. Then she smeared the cream all over his blistering palm and fingers and wrapped his hand in a bandage.

"Great, now I've only got one hand," said Flint sarcastically.

"Shut up," joked Emma as she put the bandages away. "At least you're ambidextrous. If I tried to write with my right hand I'd probably stab my left."

Flint bit his lip. "No comment."

"No seriously!" exclaimed Emma. She pulled the sleeve on her lab coat up to her elbow, revealing a long thin scar on her arm. "I tried cutting wood with my right hand."

"Can we get back to the Car so that I don't have to keep saying no comment?" laughed Flint.

"Sure," said Emma. "So, we'll finish this up and test it this afternoon, about an hour before the thunderstorm. Sound like a plan?"

"You really think we'll be finished by this afternoon?" asked Flint. Emma nodded. "Well, how did you know it's gonna storm this afternoon? It looks pretty clear out to me."

"Flint, it's the middle of July and we live on an island. There's gonna be a thunderstorm _every_ afternoon."

"Good point." Flint looked up at the shell of the Flying Car. "Ready to bring up the engine?"

"Yep," exclaimed Emma, shedding her lab coat. She hung it up on a hook next to the elevator tunnel before disappearing through the curtain towards the magnetic elevator, or the mag-vator as Flint liked to call it.

He and Emma had found the engine in the junkyard across town, and with a lot of struggling, swearing, and tearing up the pavement, they managed to git it all the way back to Flint's lab. Emma the mechanic had fixed it up, and now it was ready to be installed into the soon-to-be-flying car! They had also found seats, a steering wheel, tires, and all the metal at the junk yard. Flint had "borrowed" all the glass they needed from the Mayor's car.

While Flint waited for Emma to bring up the engine, he tested out the rockets. They blew out orange flames, so they seemed to be working fine.

A mechanical screeching sound caused Flint to stop his pacing and turn around. A round opening in the center of the lab's floor was opening up, and the hidden elevator below was rising. A few seconds later, Emma came into sight, her hands black and greasy from manhandling the engine. The engine itself was the size of a lawnmower!

"Ready?" she asked, gesturing to the car frame. Flint nodded, and together, he and Emma pushed the car onto the lowering platform.

Flint ran over to a crane-like device that he had built, and he dragged it over right next to the engine. Even though the crane was on wheels, it was still extremely heavy. As soon as Flint got it into position, a sharp burst of pain surged from his left leg.

Flint gasped and put all his weight on his right leg. Emma had her back turned to Flint as she attached chains to the engine, so she didn't see Flint cringing. By the time she turned around again, Flint had regained his composure, even though he wasn't putting any pressure on his left leg.

Emma studied Flint's face, looking a bit apprehensive. "Are you okay?" she asked. "You look kinda pale."

Flint leaned back, leaning on one of the car seats they had yet to install. "I'm fine," he said, running his hand through his hair. "Just a little tired."

"When was the last time you ate anything?" asked Emma, wiping the grease off her hands, sounding like a mother who was punishing her child.

Flint shrugged and looked away guiltily. "Um..." When _was_ the last time he had eaten? "I think Monday."

"Today's Friday," said Emma. She shook her head. "You've _gotta_ start eating _every day_! You heard what the doctor said!"

"That's blackmail," muttered Flint, sitting in the chair. About a month ago, Flint and Emma had been working in the lab. Flint had admitted to feeling a little dizzy, but half an hour later, he had collapsed. Emma had borrowed" Tim's car and driven Flint to the hospital. The doctor said that Flint was dangerously malnourished, and that he needed to eat something ever day, _not_ every week. Too bad the only thing to eat was sardines.

"I don't care if it it blackmail!" exclaimed Emma. She walked around to some metal crates behind the chair where Flint was sitting and climbed on top of them. She reached down and grabbed Flint under the arms with both hands and lifted him up into the air.

"Would you put me _down_?" gasped Flint, feeling like a little kid. Emma had done this on Monday too, which was how she had gotten Flint to eat. She had lifted Flint off the ground, standing on the crates (because Emma was only 5 foot 7, while Flint was at least 5 foot 10).

"God Flint, you only weigh 50 pounds! How do you even lift some of those things that are heavier than you?" asked Emma. She set Flint down again and sat cross-legged on the crate.

"I don't weigh 50 pounds," grumbled Flint, crossing his arms over his chest, pouting.

"I saw a scale in the bathroom," deadpanned Emma. "Go try it out. I'll bet you're still not above 60."

"And I bet I've already passed 70!" exclaimed Flint. He stormed off towards the bathroom and proceeded to weigh himself.

After a minute, Emma heard Flint's uneven footsteps shuffling back. "Well?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Good thing I didn't put any money on that bet," Flint grumbled. "Can we get back to the car now?"

Emma rolled her eyes and slid down from the crate. "Let me install the engine," she said. She looked over at Flint and saw him leaning heavily on his right leg. "Why don't you sit down for a minute."

Flint rolled his eyes. "I'd better just get to work on installing the windows and seats."

Emma used the crane to lower the engine into the engine compartment, where she proceeded to hook up all the wires and tubes that would let the car run. Meanwhile, Flint clambered up on top of the car and began to attach the glass hatch. He and Emma fell into the easy silence that came with inventing.

After a while, Emma started a conversation. "Flint, are you gonna join the high school swim team again next year?"

"Yeah, totally," said Flint. In 9th grade, Flint had been on the swim team. It was actually something his pulmonologist had suggested, saying that it would be good for Flint by helping him control his breathing and his asthma. And it did seem to help. Now, the only time Flint ever had an asthma attack was when he was super angry, extremely scared or worked up, or if he ate strawberries.

Swimming had also helped Flint with rehabilitating his leg without stressing it. Exercising his leg in a weightless environment had allowed Flint to gain some muscle in that leg. However, it was still sickly thin compared to his right leg... which was also super skinny.

"Good," said Emma. "I'll be at all of them."

"Now it's my turn to ask a question," said Flint as he hung upside-down to get into the right position to screw something in.

"What?"

"Why don't _you_ ever swim?"

Emma sighed. "I used to be able to swim. I bet I still can swim, but I just really don't like it. Y'know, after my cousin being attacked by a shark, and me swimming right next to her... There was a 50% chance that that shark would have grabbed me instead. Ever since then, I've just never liked the water."

"You have hydrophobia?" asked Flint. "I thought you just couldn't swim."

"Hey, don't make fun of phobias. I don't make fun of your fear of cars or thunderstorms!"

"Hey, _lots_ of people have a fear of thunderstorms!" exclaimed Flint.

"Lots of _dogs_ have a fear of thunderstorms."

Flint shook his head. "Whatever."

**xxx**

**4 hours later**

"And what is our time? We are done! And look at that! It's only 2:00 we are on FIRE!" exclaimed Emma, clearly excited that they had finished the car.

Flint, on the other hand, was exhausted. He was dirty, sweaty, and his leg was absolutely killing him. "Let's go test this thing," he said tiredly.

Emma looked sidelong at Flint. "You sure you don't wanna get something to eat first?"

Flint shook his head. "The energy used for digesting food can be used for other more important things."

"What could be more important than staying alive and conscious?" Emma muttered under her breath.

"Okay, ready to go down?" Flint asked. Emma scratched an itch on her wrist and nodded. They both stood next to the car and Flint hit a switch. The lift started to lower down through the metal structure, the door above them sliding closed. After a minute, the lift reached the bottom, and the large garage-like door opened up.

Flint and Emma pushed the car out onto the street, which was surprisingly empty. Actually, it was normal; around this time, most people took vacations to the states. It was extremely hot out today, and Flint was surprised that Emma was still wearing sweatpants. He shook his head and focused on what they were about to do.

"Emma, do you think you could drive down to the docks?" Flint asked nervously.

Emma nodded eagerly. "But I still think you should fly it. I mean, I _just_ turned 15 like two weeks ago, and you turned 15 in May. You're closer to getting your license than me, so if Officer Earl comes by, we'll be in less trouble!"

Flint just stared as he climbed into the passenger seat. "If I pretend like that made sense, will you drive slow?" he asked, buckling his seat belt.

Emma nodded eagerly as she slipped into the drivers seat. She too buckled up, reached down to adjust something, put the car in drive... and floored it!

Flint was slammed back into his seat so hard that he nearly got whiplash and Emma was laughing like a maniac. She only had one hand on the wheel! Flint squeezed his eyes closed, praying for his life.

Suddenly, Emma made a sharp left turn and then slammed on the brakes. Flint heard her put the car in park, and only then did he open his eyes. They were right at the end of the dock, about 15 feet from the dock's end. Ah!

Flint gasped for breath, his shaking hand clutching his chest. "Damn... girl... you... have... a... freaking... lead... FOOT!" he gasped, shakily unbuckling his seat belt.

Emma smiled sweetly. "You're just luck I drove slow for you," she said sarcastically.

Emma reached into the back and grabbed the video camera, while Flint came around to the drivers side. Needless to say, he was nervous. He didn't like cars, he didn't like thunderstorms, and he was about to drive a flying car with a thunderstorm half an hour away on the horizon. Fun.

Emma hopped out of the car, camera in hand, and looked at Flint. "You okay?"

Flint gulped. "Nervous. Nauseous from your driving."

"Don't worry, you'll do fine. There's nothing you can crash into in the sky as long as you don't drive like me!" Then she looked behind her nervously, taking in the trail of destruction.

Flint laughed shakily. "It's not really the flying thing I'm nervous about, it's more like the whole _landing_ concept."

Emma thought for a second. "Fly straight." With that, she walked over to the neighboring dock and set up the camera.

Meanwhile, three 10-year-old kids were standing on the ground at the other end of the dock. One of them was a boy and the other two were girls.

"What do you think is gonna happen to him?" a blonde girl asked her other two friends.

The other two all muttered the exact same thing: "He's gonna die."

Emma heard the kids talking, and she turned to see them. "Get outta here!" she shouted. The kids screamed and ran off. Emma rolled her eyes and scratched that spot on her wrist that wouldn't stop itching.

"Ready?" Flint called from the drivers seat.

"Roll your window up!" yelled Emma, which meant that she was also ready.

Flint rolled his window up, and Emma gave him the thumbs-up to let him know that the camera was rolling.

"FLYING CAR!" shouted Flint. He floored it, but in that nanosecond, both he and Emma realized an incredibly critical flaw in the design: THEY FORGOT THE WINGS!

_God, we forgot the damn wings!_ Emma thought.

Flint was thinking something along the lines of: **AAAAHHHHHH!**

The car shot forward and, the second it left the dock, it plunged into the freezing cold water. The water here was only about 10 feet deep, not deep enough for the car to flip upside-down. It quickly settled on the bottom.

When the car had hit the water, Flint had been thrown forward and hit his head on the steering wheel. He must have blacked out, because when he opened his eyes, the car was sitting at the bottom of the docks. The front windshield had cracks in it, and little streams of water were pouring in. The water was already up to Flint's chest.

Flint scrambled to stand up, taking advantage of the high roof. He grabbed the door handle and tried to push the door open, but it wouldn't budge.

"Figures," panted Flint. He had to hurry and get out, because in his panic, he felt his asthma start to act up. He tried rolling down the window, but the handle was impossible to turn.

"Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap CRAP!" exclaimed Flint. He needed to calm down so that he could breathe, but it was difficult, and as the water level came up higher, panic began to set in. That was when he remembered something he had learned in science class: pressure differential! The pressure of the water outside the car was way greater than the pressure inside the car, so the weight of the water pushing on the doors and windows would make them impossible to open until the whole car filled with water!

By now, the car was ¾ of the way full. Flint took as deep a breath as he could, reached up, and grabbed the hatch. He turned it. This let more water cascade into the car and Flint took one last breath before it completely filled.

Already, Flint's lungs started burning. He swam to the door and gently pushed down the handle. He pushed a little bit... and the door swung right open!

Flint burst through the door, his vision already growing darker, and shot up through the water. He broke the surface, stuttering and gasping for air. He was dizzy from the lack of oxygen, coughing from the water he had swallowed, and shaking so hard that he couldn't move. Just as he started to slip under again, a pair of strong hands grabbed his arms and pulled him up, out of the water and onto the dock. Not a second later, Flint found himself in Emma's arms as she hugged him for all he was worth.

"Dear God Flint, I was so scared! You were underwater for so long I thought you had drowned! And look at you, you're _freezing_!" exclaimed Emma.

Even in the summer heat, Flint was so cold that he didn't have the energy to stand up. He was still sitting on the dock, and Emma had to kneel down to hug him.

Flint looked up at Emma. "Y-y-you l-look k-k-kinda p-pale," he stammered.

"That's 'cause ya almost gave me a freakin' heart attack! But you should see yourself! You're whiter than your lab coat!"

"W-we f-f-forgot the w-w-wings," muttered Flint, closing his eyes and leaning against Emma.

"Yeah, we did," moaned Emma. She stood up and grabbed Flint's arm. "Let's get you home before you pass out."

Flint tried to stand, but his legs seemed to be made of jelly. It was probably from the sheer terror of almost dying in a car for the second time in his young life. After a few failed attempts, he looked up pleadingly at Emma. "A little h-help please?"

Emma grinned a bit. She took a hold of Flint's arm and lifted him up onto his feet, smiling even wider.

"What's so funny?" Flint asked, holding onto Emma's shoulder to steady himself.

"Even soaking wet, you're _still_ only 60 pounds."

"Ha ha, very funny. Let's just go home," moaned Flint, extremely sad that this invention didn't work. This was the one he had promised to make for his mother. And he failed.

"C'mon Champ, let's go," said Emma. She put Flint's arm around her shoulder to support him as they walked back down the docks. Flint didn't even bother hiding his limp.

As they reached land at the end of the dock, Emma whipped her head around, her eyes targeting a random pile of cardboard boxes. "GET OUTTA HERE!" she shouted.

The three kids jumped out of the pile of boxes and scattered.

Emma had to basically drag Flint back to his house. It was only a 10 minute walk, but by the time they were 3 minutes away, it started to rain. By the time they got to the Lockwood residence, Flint was literally dragging his feet on the ground, and Emma was supporting his entire 55 pound frame on her shoulder.

Emma practically kicked down the door. Tim, who had closed up shot early for reasons that were known only to him, nearly had an epileptic seizure when his son was dragged through the door, soaking wet, barely conscious, and coughing like he was dying.

Emma laid Flint down on the couch, as per Tim's instructions. Flint coughed some more and curled up into a ball.

Tim looked up at Emma. "What happened?" he asked, raising his eyebrow so that Emma could tell he was serious. It was actually extremely creepy, and if Emma hadn't been worried for Flint, then _she_ would have run off screaming bloody murder.

"Well, we tested his new invention at the docks..."

"What new invention?"

"Flying Car," Emma whispered, cringing, hoping Tim wouldn't yell too loud.

"WHAT? He tried to fly in a flying car that he made HIMSELF?"

"It's now called the Sinking Car," whispered Emma.

"I don't even want to know," said Tim.

Flint coughed some, and then, with his eyes still closed, whispered: "Emma, you can go home. I'll explain it all."

Emma nodded, even though Flint couldn't see her. "Good luck," she whispered. With that, she sprinted out the door as fast as she could in her condition and didn't stop until she was under her bed at some.

_Okay, Flint's dad scares the living crap out of me!_

**xxx**

**3 days later**

Flint lay awake in his bed in his lab. He hadn't done much because he was still recovering from a cold. But he _was_ thinking about his failed invention.

_Maybe I'll always fail at everything I try. Maybe I was never meant to be an inventor. I'm sorry Mom. I'm sorry if I failed you..._

_THUNK_

Flint sat up. "What the..."

_THUNK_

"What is that?" Flint asked himself. He sat up, still a bit dizzy from the cold. Slowly, he stood up and made his way to the window.

He opened the window and looked down to find Emma, holding some rocks and looking very excited.

"What is it Emma? It's 2 in the morning!" exclaimed Flint, yawning.

"I need you to see something! It's really important!" Emma exclaimed. She didn't look tired at all.

Flint sighed and went back inside. He slipped a pair of sweatpants over his pajama bottoms, and he zipped himself up in a hoodie jacket. He sluggishly walked over to the mag-vator and climbed in.

The second he opened the door, he was greeted with a smiling Emma. "Flint I cannot wait for you to see this!"

Up close, Flint could see that Emma had some cuts on her arms and face. "How'd you get those cuts?"

"Running through the forest will do that," she said. "Now c'mon!" She grabbed Flint's hand and began pulling him towards the forest.

After a while of walking, Flint needed to know something. "Why were you running through the forest?"

"To get to your house, duh!" she exclaimed. "Plus, I'm a bit of an insomniac, so I usually come out here at night."

"Yeah, I'm kind of an insomniac too. So... what is it you wanted me to see?"

"Here!"

Flint looked around the clearing. "But this is just my other lab."

"But look!"

Flint looked at his lab for a minute before noticing something: there was something sitting on top of his lab.

Quickly, Flint climbed up onto the ledge and scrambled up on top of his lab. What he found absolutely melted his heart.

A baby monkey with brown fur and big, bright orange eyes stared up at Flint.

"Hey little guy," crooned Flint, gently picking up the monkey. The poor little monkey winced and grabbed it's left leg. Looking closely, Flint saw that the monkey's left leg was bent at an odd angle, probably broken. "...just like me..."

The little monkey looked up at Flint differently; it looked at Flint as if he knew that Flint could help him.

Flint gently slid down from the top of his lab. He stood next to Emma on the ground.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked.

"His leg is broken," said Flint.

"Are you gonna keep him?" asked Emma.

"I dunno. I'll probably take care of him until his leg heals, then I'll let him go," said Flint.

"Well, we should at least give him a name. What are you gonna call him?"

Flint thought for a moment. "I'll name him Steve. It's short, simple, and it'll be easy for him to remember."

Steve smiled and fell asleep, snuggled in Flint's arms.

_A/N: ENTER STEVE! So, what did you think? Here's a question: would you be scared if Tim pulled "the Eyebrow" at you? Oh, and just in case you were wondering, Flint's best stroke on the swim team was the butterfly stroke, and that's the hardest one to do! =D_


	11. Monkey Thought Translator

_A/N: Sorry for taking so long. I got sidetracked writing a super long chapter for one of my other stories. =P By the way, Flint and Emma are 17 now. Oh, and look! I finally figured out how to put the title of the chapter up top! Finally!_

_One more thing: any artists out there who'd be willing to draw some of the scenes from these moments that weren't in the movie? PM or say so in the review! Pretty please? =D_

**Cloudy Hope**

**Chapter 11**

**Monkey Thought Translator**

"Done!" shouted Flint, holding up his newest invention for all (no one) to see. Steve, now fully grown and rehabilitated, was sitting across the lab on Flint's bed, chewing on who-knows-what. Steve looked up at Flint and said something in his little monkey language.

"EXACTLY!" exclaimed Flint. Steve looked back up at Flint, clearly confused by his sudden outburst. "See, I didn't understand what you were saying, and that's why I created _this!_" Flint held up what looked like a tiny child toy radio thingy and a sweatband with an antenna. Steve cocked his head to the side.

"It's a monkey thought translator," explained Flint. "It'll let me understand everything you're thinking so I can know when you're hungry or thirsty or something like that."

Steve jumped up and down.

Flint smiled. "I take it that means you're excited."

Flint looked at the headband nervously, and carefully slipped it on Steve's furry head. Steve looked up at it, his brow furrowed in confusion. Flint found a black elastic belt strap and gently pulled it around the monkey's chest, making sure it wasn't too tight, but that it wasn't loose enough to fall off. Steve seemed comfortable with it, and that was good enough for Flint.

Flint hooked the speaker onto the band, and was just about to turn it on when his phone (that he built himself last year) started ringing.

_Flint you have a call, Flint you have a call._

Emma had set that ring tone.

"Speak of the devil," muttered Flint, looking at the caller ID. Flint answered the phone. "Hey, are you almost done?"

Emma's voice came through from the other line. "Yeah, I'll be done in 15 minutes." At the moment, Emma was right next door, babysitting 7-year-old Cal Devereaux, Officer Earl's son.

"Okay, I'll wait," said Flint, sitting down on his bed.

"Hey," said Emma, "didn't your dad say he wanted to watch you test all of your new inventions from now on?"

"Oh yeah," moaned Flint, covering his eyes with his hand. Ever since the flying car incident, Tim had always kept a close eye on Flint whenever he was inventing. "I guess I should go down to the shop and set it up. Meet you down there?"

"Okay, so I'll- oh dear God..." Emma turned her phone off, but right before she did, Flint could hear her voice in the background, saying something like... "_Cal, spit that out!_"

Flint closed his phone and held his arm out for Steve to climb on. Steve scrambled up to Flint's shoulder and perched there, excited to go somewhere. On his way to the elevator, Flint grabbed the video camera and pedestal. They entered the elevator and zoomed down, coming out at the bottom and hearing the chaos coming from the yard next door.

"Now Steve," coached Flint, "you need to be good this time. Dad's still not sure if he's gonna let me keep you, so you _need_ to stay away from his mustache this time. Got it?"

Steve made a cooing sound, and Flint took that as a yes. "Good."

**15 or so minutes later**

"No really Dad, it'll be simple. I'll just press the button and we'll be able to hear what he's thinking! It's simple and harmless," said Flint as he set up the camera and pointed it at the table that Steve was sitting on.

"Well, then go ahead," said Tim, clearly unsure about having Steve in the shop, mainly because of what happened _last_ time. Tim had made sure that the only customers in the store, Joe Towne and the old man with the glass eye, were way on the other side of the shop.

Flint looked up at his dad. "I can't. I'm waiting for-"

Flint's sentence was cut off by the sound of screeching tires from in front of the store. Flint knew that sound. Emma had arrived.

Flint walked to the front of the store and opened the door. Emma parked her car, a yellow convertible, right outside the door halfway on the curb in a no-parking zone. There were tire marks on the road behind her; a clear sign that she had been speeding all the way here, eager to see the test.

"So the Dare Devil finally decides to join the party," joked Flint.

Emma hopped out of her car and took off a pair of sunglasses that she was wearing. "So where's the monkey?"

"Inside," said Flint. He and Emma walked inside. The second Emma came through the door, Steve stopped fiddling with the speaker and looked at her hopefully.

"Sorry Steve," said Emma. "No gummy bears this time." Steve looked disappointed. The last time he had been in the shop was when Emma had returned to Swallow Falls from a visit to the States.

She had brought a bag of gummy bears, and Steve had stolen them, hid under the counter, and pigged out. Then, 10 seconds after he finished the bag, he went totally Tasmanian Devil and spazzed out, ripping out half of Tim's mustache, destroying nearly half the store, and even crippling one of the older customers, giving him a glass eye and forcing him to walk with a cane. The old man never sued though, and he was still a regular. Flint thought his name was Mr. Jenkins, and he was sitting right across the shop, but that didn't matter now.

Emma walked towards the camera, but somehow managed to trip over her own foot. She lurched to the left and whacked right into one of the shelves, knocking a few cans and bottles off the shelf. She regained her balance and looked sheepishly at Tim. "Sorry Tim!" Then she looked at the ground angrily. "Stupid flat surfaces!"

Tim shook his head and sighed. "It's okay..." he went into the isle and began returning the runaway items to their proper location.

"Ready?" asked Flint, laughing.

Emma took off her jacket and tossed it on a spare table, showing off her t-shirt that said: '_If you don't like how I drive, stay off the porch!_'. "I was born ready." She took her position behind the camera.

"Ready Steve?"

Steve made excited monkey noises and jumped up and down a little bit. The speaker shifted a bit, and Steve went back to playing with it.

"Ready Dad?"

"Um..."

"I'll take that as a yes!"

"And... rolling!" exclaimed Emma. She hit a button on the camera, and the magic red light came on.

"MONKEY THOUGHT TRANSLATOR!" exclaimed Flint, using elaborate hand motions. He stood straight up and pressed the button on Steve's speaker.

After a breathtaking moment of silence... "Hungry!"

Flint forced himself to keep from squealing like a little girl and dancing around the room. HIS INVENTION WORKED! _If only Mom could see me now..._

Flint knew he had to say something, so on a split decision, to cover his state of shock, he said: "How wise."

However, Steve became freaked out by the aspect of hearing his thoughts out loud. He must have thought it was an enemy trying to attack him, and the first thing he locked eyes on was the camera.

"HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY!" shouted Steve.

He lunged at the camera and knocked it over on its side. Emma jumped back just in time as Steve jumped over the camera and at her head.

Steve flew clean over Emma's head and ignored Flint's desperate cries of "NO STEVE! NO!"

Steve ran around the shop, screaming "HUNGRY" over and over again. He ran near the table where Joe and Mr. Jenkins were sitting and jumped on the shelf, knocking it over. The results were like dominoes. Each shelf fell in time with the others, stopping at the shelf Tim was standing next to. Tim stepped back in time to avoid getting his toes chopped off, but he bumped into the shelf behind him, knocking _them_ over too! When Tim turned around to inspect the damage was when Steve attacked.

The deranged monkey jumped on Tim's shoulder and grabbed Tim's beloved mustache.

"STEVE NO!" shouted Flint. But it was too late.

Steve grabbed the left half of Tim's mustache and yanked it clean off!

"RAAAHHH!" roared Tim. Joe and Mr. Jenkins sat enjoying the show.

Steve jumped off of Tim's shoulder and ran out the door.

"Emma, let's go get him!" shouted Flint. Emma stood up and they ran out the door, with Flint calling: "Sorry Dad!" over his shoulder.

Flint and Emma burst out the door and onto Main Street. For a terrifying second, Steve was no where to be found, but then...

"AAAHHHHH!" shouted someone to the right. Flint and Emma whipped around to see none other than Daniel Faris, with a very hungry monkey on his head.

"GUMMY BEARS! GUMMY BEARS! STEVE! HUNGRY! RED! GUMMY BEARS!" shouted Steve as he ripped handfuls of Daniel's hair out.

Flint took a step to get Steve off Daniel's head, but Emma put a hand on his shoulder. "Let the boy learn."

Meanwhile, across the street, three 12 year old kids watched the scene play out. They were taking bets on which would come first: Daniel loses all of his hair, or Flint gets tired of watching Steve punish Daniel.

"I'm not buying him any hair cream," said the boy, putting his hands in his bottomless pockets.

"I'll buy a camera," said a brown-eyed girl.

"Maybe he can just borrow one of Shelbourne's wigs," suggested a blonde girl.

At that point, another girl, about 12 years old, walked up to the group. She had brown hair with red streaks in it and brown eyes. She was wearing converse shoes, jeans, and a t-shirt that said 'STUDENT + DYING = STUDYING'. She had about 10 rolls of duct tape hanging on her belt, and probably more in her bag. "What's going on?" she asked.

"We're watching Steve rip out that bully's hair," said the brown-eyed girl. "By the way, my name's Kalina. This is Jacob," she pointed to the boy, "and Amy." She pointed to the blonde girl.

"My name's Lydia. Who's Steve's owner?" asked Lydia.

"That guy in the lab coat. His name's Flint," said Jacob.

"And he isn't doing anything because..."

"Because the guy getting his hair ripped out is a total jerk," said Amy enthusiastically.

Lydia shrugged. "Oh, okay." They went back to watching the carnage.

"RED! GUMMY BEAR! HUNGRY! STEVE! HUNGRY! **HUNGRY!**" With a very painful _yank_, Steve took out a huge handful of Daniel's hair, causing Daniel to roar like a demented carnivore of some sort. Steve got spooked and hopped off of Daniel, running to hide behind Flint.

Daniel hunched over, grabbing his head where patches of his short greasy red hair were missing. Then, slowly, he looked right up at Flint, snarling.

"This is all YOUR FAULT, LOCKWOOD!" shouted Daniel, stepping up to Flint and jabbing him in the chest. Flint took a step back, as did Steve and Emma.

"H-how is it _my_ fault?" asked Flint, his voice much sturdier than it should have been in this situation.

"It's _your_ monkey, it's _your_ stupid inventions, and it's _YOU!_" Daniel grabbed Flint by the front of his shirt and lifted him off the ground. Daniel was taller than Flint, and even though Flint didn't really weigh that much, Daniel still had no trouble getting him off the ground.

The first thing Flint noticed was the smell. Daniel smelled like old rotten sardine that had been left in a pile of dog poo and left to sit out in the sun for three months! And, unfortunately, Flint spoke from experience (well, he _does_ live in Swallow Falls)...

"Just give it up, Lockwood," snarled Daniel. "You're a _failure_, and you'll _always_ be a loser! Nothing you build will _ever_ work! So why don't you just give up while you still can?" When Flint didn't respond, Daniel shook him. "_Answer me you pathetic little twit!_"

Flint narrowed his eyes. "I don't actually think failure is all that bad," he said calmly. "And so far, all of my inventions have _worked_! Spray-On Shoes, Remote Controlled Television, Hair Un-Balder, Flying Car, Monkey Thought Translator; they all worked. Just... not the way I planned..."

Right about now, Daniel looked confused, Flint looked confident, Emma looked cocky, the kids across the street were cheering, and Steve was still hungry.

Daniel narrowed his beady eyes and flung Flint down. Flint stumbled backwards and fell. Emma managed to grab him before his head hit the sidewalk, but he still hit his left hip pretty hard.

"You'll always be a failure, and nothing you do is gonna change that," snarled Daniel.

Flint stood up, not putting any pressure on his left leg. "We'll just see about that."

Daniel advanced forward, but at this point, Emma stepped up from behind Flint. "Where's Brent?"

As if in response, they heard a loud high-pitch scream coming from down the street. Everyone turned and looked, shocked to see Brent running for his life, being chased by bees. A bit too distracted to be controlling Daniel at the moment.

As the kids cheered for the bees, and Brent disappeared from sight down the road, Emma looked kinda pale. She scratched at her wrist absentmindedly. "He's allergic to bees, isn't he?"

"Yep," growled Daniel. He turned back to Emma and Flint. "He's not gonna stop me, and I know _you're_ not gonna stop me," he said, pointing at Emma.

"How do you know I can't drop kick your sorry butt right here? Too afraid to fight a girl and lose?"

"Oooohhhh," muttered the kids from across the street.

"I'll _never_ lose in a fight," said Daniel, bending over a bit to be at Emma's eye level. Emma scrunched up her nose at the smell of Daniel's breath. He was five feet away but she could still smell it. It smelled like he had been eating carrion for the past week, and unfortunately, she also spoke from experience.

"I'll call that bluff," said Flint, stepping up. Daniel smiled and cracked his knuckles.

"Flint, don't," warned Emma.

Daniel whirled around to face her. "Why don't you go swim with sharks you stupid limping little grease monkey!" he exclaimed.

Emma blanched, her face pale, eyes wide, jaw smacking the sidewalk. Everything was dead quiet for a second. Even the kids stopped chattering.

"Bad," said Steve.

Daniel turned to Flint and smiled smugly, but his smile faded when he saw the dark look on Flint's face. Flint clenched his fists and, without hesitation, launched himself at Daniel.

Flint grabbed onto Daniel's neck and somehow managed to get on his back! The kids were cheering: "GO FLINT! GO FLINT!"

Daniel yelled and tried to grab Flint off of his back, but Flint was too quick for him. He grabbed what was left of Daniel's hair and yanked. Daniel roared and spun around in circles, trying to get a hold of Flint.

Flint kicked Daniel in the back. Daniel cried out and stumbled backwards. Unfortunately for Flint, Daniel smashed his back into the side of a building, causing Flint to bang his head and back against the cement wall.

At the moment, Brent came running back down the street. He was no longer being chased by bees; instead, he was being chased by the Remote Controlled Television!

As Brent ran by, Emma stuck out her left foot and Brent tripped, crashing to the ground. Emma then performed the coolest ninja move she had ever done in her life and planted her left boot on the Television's screen. The Television stumbled backwards, and it's screen displayed that "technical difficulties" yelling rainbow screen. It ran back off into the forest.

Emma turned and grabbed Brent's arm, pulling it behind his back at an odd angle, putting him in a chicken wing. She pinned him to the ground with a knee on his back.

"Whoa," muttered Brent. He tried to look up at Emma. "Where did you learn to wrestle?"

Emma smiled a bit. "All of my cousins are guys. Now _call off Daniel!_"

"What? How do you expect me to do that?"

"I dunno, blow a whistle, say 'heel,' do anything!"

At this point, Flint was dangerously close to falling off of Daniel's back. He was tired and aching from being smashed into a wall. Knowing he wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer, he kicked Daniel's legs out from behind.

Flint's plan was to jump off, grab Steve and Emma, and book it as soon as he hit the ground. However, as he fell, Daniel reached up and grabbed Flint's neck. He flung Flint over his head and slammed him down onto the sidewalk, back-first!

Flint was immediately winded. He gasped for breath, but almost stopped breathing when Daniel stood over him, smiling smugly.

Daniel picked Flint up by the front of his lab coat and lifted him up off the ground. He pulled back his right fist, about to knock Flint's lights out, when...

_CLICK!_

A deep grizzly voice from behind Daniel said, "Put down my son."

Daniel turned around to see Tim Lockwood, standing right behind him, holding a shotgun. His eyebrow was raised and his eyes were red.

Everything became quiet again.

"Awkward," said one of the kids. Tim turned to look at them and did the eyebrow thingy even more. The kids screamed and ran off in different directions. Emma slowly stepped off of Brent's back and let him up.

Slowly, Daniel lowered Flint to the ground, where he collapsed to his knees, gasping for breath. Emma and Steve (who had been running around in circles during the fight) ran to his side.

"Up against the wall," said Tim in the voice he used to use during his days as a cop.

Daniel slowly put his hands in the air and faced the wall. From his pocket, Tim pulled out a pair of handcuffs, which he had also kept from his days as being a cop. However, as he reached for Daniel's wrist, a voice came from behind them all.

"Ahem," said a cold silky voice. Flint stiffened. He knew that voice too well.

Turning around, he saw the solid formal posture of pale-skinned, red-haired, green-eyed Dr. Alexander Faris. "I believe you no longer have the authority to arrest my son," he said in a formal tone.

Tim turned, lowering his eyebrow. "No, but he does." Tim pointed to Officer Earl's police cruiser, screaming down the street.

Earl pulled up in front of the shop and hopped out. He tipped his hat to Tim and Tim nodded.

"Alright, what's goin' on here?" demanded Earl.

Everyone started talking at once. Daniel pointed at Flint and Steve; Emma pointed at Daniel; Brent tried to point towards where the Television had vanished; and Tim and Alexander pointed at each other. All Earl could make out was: "He started it!" and "His fault" and "Ninja kicked the Television" and "Gummy bears." 

"Hey!" shouted Earl. Everyone stopped accusing one another and looked at the muscular police officer. "One at a time! Tim?"

"What am I supposed to say? I came out here and this delinquent was beating up my son!" exclaimed Tim, pointing to Daniel.

"He attacked me first!" exclaimed Daniel, pointing to Flint, who was still on his knees on the ground. Emma narrowed her eyes and snarled at him. Daniel yanked his finger back, afraid Emma might bite him and give him rabies or something.

Earl looked back and forth from Flint to Daniel. They both looked relatively uninjured; the only difference was Daniel was missing patches of hair and Flint was on the ground gasping for breath. Earl narrowed his eyes at Daniel.

Turning to Alexander, he said, "I'm gonna need to take your son in for questioning."

Alexander kept a straight stiff posture, almost as if he had a wooden board nailed to his spine. "I understand," he growled.

"WHAT?" shouted Daniel. He suddenly found that he already had handcuffs around his wrists.

"Just get in the car kid," said Earl, shoving Daniel into the back seat. He slammed the door shut and turned to Flint. "I'm guessing you wanna file charges?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Emma.

"No," gasped Flint.

"No?"

"Yes!"

"What?"

"No, I don't wanna file charges," said Flint, standing up. Everyone stared at the inventor for a minute.

Finally, Earl shrugged. "Suit yourself." As he went to get into his car, he glanced over at Emma's whacky and illegal parking job. He sighed a bit and shook his head, but he didn't give her a ticket. He simply got in his car and drove down to the police station, Daniel fuming in the back.

Tim turned to Alexander. "You can go now," he growled.

Alexander smiled coldly. He turned on a dime and walked stiffly away.

After he was gone from sight, Flint turned to Tim. "Dad, do you want me to stay and help you clean?"

"No," said Tim, looking down. "Just go home. I think you've done enough damage for one day..."

Flint took a step back, hurt. It wasn't his fault that Steve went nuts.

_Wait a second..._ thought Flint. _It was my fault..._

Casting his gaze down, Flint slowly turned and walked off towards home, the sky turning purple with the setting sun.

After a minute, he heard the soft, quiet, slightly uneven footsteps of Emma following him. Dejectedly looking over his shoulder, he saw Emma walking a few feet behind him, Steve sitting on her head.

"Don't you have an illegal parking job to attend to?" muttered Flint. "And why didn't he give you a ticket?"

"I babysit his kid for free. I don't get tickets," she said. A second later, she caught up with him. "Why didn't you file charges?"

"Because it was my fault that whole thing started," moaned Flint, rubbing his bruised back. He still hadn't quiet caught his breath.

Steve hopped onto Flint's shoulder and started playing with his hair. "Hungry," said Steve.

Flint and Emma smiled. "Well, at least that's working," said Emma.

They walked back to Flint's house in silence. Emma would glance up at the sky every so often, smiling. At one point, she turned to Flint. "I think Dr. Faris is a vampire."

Flint smiled. "Why do you think that?"

"That was the first time I've ever seen him out in the sun!"

"Then how come he didn't burst into flames?"

"I dunno, SPF30?"

Flint smiled and they rounded the corner to Flint's driveway. Steve jumped off of Flint's shoulder and dashed over to the lab, climbing up the elevator tube and through an open window.

Flint and Emma entered the mag-vator and began their ascent into the lab. Something poked Flint in the side and he looked down, realizing that Emma was holding the camera.

"When did you get that?" asked Flint.

"Right before I ran after you," said Emma. "I think the tape's gonna be pretty priceless."

Flint smiled and took the camera off the pedestal.

The elevator came to a stop and they stepped out into the lab. Flint took the camera over to his computers and plugged it in. He clicked on the video feed and the film started to play.

They watched as Steve attacked the camera and laughed, playing it again frame-by-frame. After a while they let the video play and saw Tim trip over something after Flint and Emma had run out. After a minute, he got up and turned the camera off. The video ended.

Emma giggled a bit. "I didn't know your dad had a shotgun."

"He keeps it in case someone tries to rob him," said Flint. He swung the mouse around and dragged the video feed into an editing window and began editing out the part after Steve had ripped out Tim's mustache.

Behind him, Emma turned around. "Uh, Flint?"

"Yeah?"

"I think Steve broke something."

Flint turned around and immediately all the color drained from his face. Steve had found a tape and had pulled out some of the film.

"STEVE! NO!" shouted Flint. He leaped out of his chair and lunged at Steve. Steve yelped and dropped the tape.

"Aw man, aw man, aw man..." muttered Flint. He picked up the tape and quickly looked around. Spotting a screwdriver on his work bench, he ran over to it and grabbed it. Using the screwdriver, he slowly and carefully turned the jack, reeling the film back into the tape.

Once it was all inside, Flint tossed the screwdriver over his shoulder and ran over to his bed. From under it, he pulled out an old tape recorder playing device. He quickly put the tape in, grabbed a pair of headphones, plugged them into the headphone jack, and hit the play button.

For one heart-stopping minute, Flint sat still, listening. Then, finally, he relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh thank god," he muttered.

"What?" asked Emma. "What was that?"

Flint stopped the tape and took it out, slipping it into his pocket. He walked over to Emma and took the tape out again. "My mom made this for me," he said. "This and my lab coat are the last things I have to remember her... Well, and these." He pointed to his shoes. "And the flying car. And-" he gasped.

"I have a new invention."

"What?" asked Emma.

Flint smiled. "It's a secret. I'll let you know when I get what I need."

Emma smiled. "Whatever." She looked at her watch. "Aw crap, I've gotta go! See ya Flint!" With that, she ran out the door.

Flint shrugged, used to Emma's strange behavior. He looked down at the tape in his hands. "Where am I gonna hide this...?"

Looking around, he suddenly found the perfect hiding spot. He walked over to his computer and began to type.

_A/N: Again, sorry for taking so long. I was busy with another super long 78 page chapter. Hehe, sorry... Uh, any questions? Let me know what you liked! And don't worry, all questions will be answered in the end. ;)_


	12. Road Trip

_A/N: Wow, I'm really cranking out chapters without school getting in the way. I hope y'all enjoy this chapter. Oh, and now that I know how to put the name of the chapter up there at the top, I can stop writing it down there! Hey nameless reviewer, what do you want your teen to look like, and what do you want to be called?_

**Cloudy Hope**

Flint was 18 when he first went to the States. He had graduated from high school a week before, and now it was time for his graduation present.

A week before he had graduated, Tim had asked him what he wanted to do. Flint had told him he wanted to go to the States.

And that was how Flint ended up where he was now, standing next to Emma, who was now basically his sister, on an old ferry on the gray stormy seas. The only bad part about the trip was that he couldn't bring Steve.

"Do you think Steve will be okay?" asked Flint.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," muttered Emma. She was standing at the front of the boat, her eyes closed, letting the wind blow her shoulder-length blonde hair back.

Flint's lab coat fluttered in the breeze, and he came and stood beside Emma.

"Thanks again for letting me come with you," he said.

"It's no problem," she said. She opened her smoky green eyes and looked at Flint. "If you wanted to come to the States so badly, why didn't you come with me before?"

Flint shrugged. "I dunno. I guess I was just kinda... well... nervous! I've never left Swallow Falls before." He sighed. "Are you sure it's okay with your friend if I come?"

Emma smiled. "You haven't met Logan yet. She doesn't care who I bring as long as I visit her."

Flint looked up at the gray clouds. He felt a sprinkle of rain. Taking a deep breath to calm down, he looked at Emma. "So where are we gonna be going?"

"Everywhere."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Well, we can stay in the States as long as we need. Logan lives in Virginia, so once we get to the dock, we'll drive up and stay with her for a few days. Then we can drive up to Busch Gardens. They have a new ride there called the Griffon. It's awesome. We can get a hotel, spend the day at Busch Gardens, and then we can drive up to D.C. the next day. Then we can go to Baltimore. After that, I promise you I'll take you to New York."

"Wow. Busy week."

"Yep," said Emma proudly. "After that we can drive back down to Rhode Island and take a ferry back home."

"Sounds good to me," said Flint, yawning. It was about 10:00 at night now, and they had been on the boat for about 9 hours. The ferry was supposed to dock some time around 11:00 the next day. "Can't wait to get off this boat. Hey, did those drinks at dinner taste kinda weird to you?"

"Yeah, they did. They tasted sweeter than they should have been. Probably put a crap-load of extra sugar in there to make it taste like actual lemonade and not sardine pee." She laughed a bit. "Go get some sleep, and don't worry about it. We've got a busy week ahead of us."

"What about you?" asked Flint, stretching.

Emma laughed a bit. "I'm nocturnal. Don't worry, I'll get tired around 3."

"Don't stay up too long," muttered Flint as the gentle rocking of the boat started to put him to sleep, making him dizzy. "You're doing all the driving tomorrow."

Emma smiled and closed her eyes again, enjoying the breeze. Meanwhile, Flint made his way below deck. He and Emma were the only ones on the boat besides one other random business man, so Emma had the girl's sleeping cabin all to herself. The business man was already asleep on the far side of the room, so Flint took the bed closest to the door.

He had always been good with boats; he had never gotten seasick before. But right about now, he wasn't feeling so good. Maybe it was just being on a boat for an extended amount of time. Or maybe it was just from being uneasy about being so far from home. Either way, he was starting to feel like crap.

Without the cool sea breeze in his face, Flint felt like it was getting hotter and harder to breathe. He sat up and rested his face in his hands, trying to take a deep breath. After a minute, he became more dizzy and felt nauseous.

He slowly stood up and almost tipped over. He was so dizzy he could hardly stand, and the rocking of the boat didn't help at all.

He stumbled into the bathroom and stood at the sink for a minute, coughing, feeling ready to puke. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. After a minute, he heard footsteps coming down the hallway. Someone appeared in the doorway.

"Flint? Are you okay?" asked Emma.

"Can't... breathe..." gasped Flint, clutching his chest. Suddenly, the boat seemed to lurch and Flint lost his balance, collapsing on the ground. The last thing he saw was Emma bending down in front of him before the world turned black.

**xxx**

Flint slowly opened his eyes to find Emma looking down at him.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Flint moaned. "What happened?"

"I came downstairs and heard you coughing. I went to make sure you were okay, but you told me you couldn't breathe and then you passed out!" exclaimed Emma. She pulled something out of her pocket and handed it to Flint. "I used this on you." It was his asthma inhaler.

Flint slipped the inhaler into his pocket. "What time is it?"

Emma looked at her watch. "About 11:30."

Flint sighed and pushed his hair out of his face. Emma handed him a glass of water, and he gratefully took it.

"You were right," she said. "There was something in the drinks."

Flint almost choked on his water. "What?"

Emma held up something and it took Flint about half a second to realize what it was. A strawberry. "Oh... well that explains it..."

"I talked to the cook. He said he puts a bit of strawberry juice in it to hide the gross flavor."

Flint sighed and laid back down, exhausted. "I can't wait to get off this boat."

**xxx**

As soon as the boat docked the next day in a port in North Carolina, Emma and Flint sped out. They rode in Emma's car with the hood up and the AC on high.

"Are you okay?" asked Emma. Flint, who was curled up in the passenger seat, moaned. He sat up and readjusted the AC vent so that the blast of cold air was still blowing on his face.

"I still feel like crap," he muttered.

"Good thing all we're doing today is driving. When we get to Logan's house tonight you can go right to sleep."

They rode in silence for a while, driving down the interstate. Emma seemed to really know her way around.

After a while, Emma turned to Flint. "I've never seen you have an allergic reaction that bad before."

"Normally it's just an asthma attack. I guess being on the boat made it worse. That and the fact that it was the first time in a long time that I've actually had strawberries in my system." He rubbed his throat and coughed a bit. "The day after an attack, I'm always real thirsty and have a fever."

"Do you want me to pull over? You can crawl in the back and take a nap," suggested Emma.

"Tempting," muttered Flint. "How much longer do we have to drive?"

Emma looked at the clock on the dashboard. "We'll get there at around 6:00."

"What time is it now?"

"Noon."

Flint moaned and curled back up again, pulling his knees up to his chest and facing the window. "What kind of idiot puts strawberry juice in lemonade?"

"The same kind of idiot who does _that_ on the side of the interstate," muttered Emma, looking out her window. Flint sat up to see what Emma was talking about, but they had already driven by it.

"What was it?"

"You don't wanna know."

Flint shrugged and laid back down. "Not the best way to start a vacation, is it?"

"No, but at least you know nothing worse will happen!"

Flint sighed and started to fall asleep again. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open and he sat up. "I've gotta call my dad!"

"What? Why?"

"He told me to call him when the boat docked. I totally forgot!"

Flint pulled out his phone and started to dial Tim's number, but he stopped. "Aw man, I have no idea what to say!"

"Dial his number and let me talk to him," said Emma. "I can probably persuade him."

"Good luck," said Flint, dialing Tim's number. He handed the phone to Emma.

After a minute, Emma said, "Hi Mr. Lockwood!" She quickly pulled the phone away from her ear as Tim shouted. After a minute, she brought it back. "He's fine, sir!" After another minute, "No, you can't talk to him. He's asleep."

Flint looked at Emma, confused. Emma gave Flint a little 'trust me' nod and went back to talking. "Yeah, he had a rough night last night... Food poisoning... Yes, he's fine... I'll have him call you when we get to my friend's house... Thank you... Bye." She hung up the phone and gave it back to Flint.

Flint put his phone away. "Thanks."

"Any time, bro."

They drove for another couple hours in silence. Around 3:00, when Emma pulled into a gas station to get some gas and a drink, Flint fell asleep.

When Flint woke up later, he found he was in the back seat and no longer in the front. He had a blanket thrown over top of him. He was still tired, but at least he felt better. Sitting up, he saw that the sky was dark blue as the sun set behind the cloud cover. Emma was driving down a dirt road in a heavily forested area.

"Hey, where are we?" yawned Flint. "And how did I get in the back seat?"

"Well, look who's back from the dead," said Emma, glancing back at Flint. She grabbed a bottle of water from her cup holder and gave it to Flint. "We are driving down a dirt road in the middle of the forest with no cars around going to my best friend's house."

"Okay, good to know, but how did I get in the back seat?"

"You're only 60 pounds, Flint. You're not that hard to lift."

Flint's face flushed from embarrassment. "Uh, h-how long until we get there?"

"About 10 minutes." Emma looked up through her windshield. She pulled over to the side of the road and stopped. She hit a switch or button or something and the roof slid back. "Climb up here."

Flint scrambled back into the front seat and buckled up. Emma started driving again.

Flint looked over at her, and then at the speed she was going. "I didn't know Lead-Foot Emma could drive slow," said Flint.

"Just consider yourself lucky that Logan doesn't like strawberries," said Emma.

Flint laughed a bit and laid back in the warm leather seat, closing his eyes and letting the gentle breeze rustle his hair. Before he even knew it, Emma said, "We're here!"

Flint opened his eyes and gasped. Logan's house was _huge_. The edge of the property was surrounded by the forest, and the house itself was on a hill. At the bottom of the hill, back behind the house, was a lake. Standing outside the front door stood Emma's friend.

Emma parked the car and put up the hood. She got out of the car and so did Flint. Logan ran from the front porch and pulled Emma into a bear hug.

"Oh my gosh, Emma! I haven't seen you in like forever!"

"Aka egh mph," choked out Emma.

"They're doing awesome, thanks for asking!" said Logan, letting go of Emma, who promptly doubled over, gasping for breath.

"And who's this?" asked Logan, gesturing to Flint. Now that she wasn't moving around, Flint saw that she had really short brown hair, freckles, green eyes, and she was as tall as Emma.

"This is Flint," said Emma, standing up again. She stretched and her back made a wicked cracking noise. "That's gonna hurt in the morning..."

"Well come on!" exclaimed Logan, gesturing for them to follow her.

"Hang on, Sugar Monkey," said Emma. "Let us get our shields."

"Shields?" asked Flint.

"Bags," said Emma, opening the trunk of her car and pulling out their suitcases. She handed Flint his light blue one and held up her own green one. "Okay, we're ready."

"Ready for what?" asked Flint.

Logan cracked an evil smile. "C'mon, I'll show you!"

Emma and Flint followed her to the porch. When they got there, Emma leaned over to Flint. "Hold your suitcase in front of anything important," she said.

Flint got a bit paler.

Logan opened the door and the three stepped inside. Logan turned around. "OKAY!" she shouted. Then she immediately jumped out of the way.

No more than 2 seconds later, the sound of a stampede echoed through the house. And then, out of nowhere, an enormous black-furred Mastiff dog preformed a flying tackle on Emma, who just barely managed to get her suitcase in front of her stomach on time.

The Mastiff pinned Emma to the floor, his front paws on her suitcase and _not_ her stomach. The Mastiff then began drowning her by licking her face. Emma was too busy laughing to do anything.

The next thing Flint knew, there was a crowd formed at his feet. Jumping on his leg was a small black-furred Chihuahua. Right next to it was a young Beagle puppy, howling at him. And finally, a large German Shepard and a Golden Retriever rounded the corner and made a beeline for Flint and Emma. The German Shepard went for Emma, and the Golden Retriever jumped on Flint, who just barely managed to hold up his suitcase in time. He too crashed to the ground.

Logan finally managed to stop laughing. She stood up straight and said with a firm voice, "Tiny, Dutchess, Lilly, Zeus, Farley! Front and center!"

All the dogs scrambled away from Flint and Emma and sat at attention in front of Logan in a straight like, with the Mastiff at one end and the Chihuahua at the other.

Flint and Emma stood up and wiped the dog slobber off their faces.

"Why does Tiny always attack me?" asked Emma, brushing black dog fur off of her white t-shirt.

"Because you smell like a dog," suggested Logan.

"I..." Emma discreetly sniffed her armpit. "Phew... I could use a shower..."

"Uh, the big one's named Tiny?" asked Flint.

"Yep," said Logan. "We've got Tiny the Mastiff, Zeus the Chihuahua, Lilly the Beagle, Dutchess the German Shepard, Farley the Golden Retriever, and-" she stopped short. "Ugh, where is he?" Logan put two fingers in her mouth and whistled. "Drix!" she shouted.

The head of a white-furred Siberian Husky poked out from around the corner.

Logan smiled. "Come here, Drix. Don't be shy."

The Husky, Drix, slowly crept out from around the corner and then sprinted over to Logan. She looked up at Flint. "He's shy."

Emma laughed as Drix flopped over on his back and Logan rubbed his belly. She looked over at Flint and saw him laughing too, but he was starting to look a little pale again.

"Hey Logan," said Emma. Logan, now covered in dog fur, looked up. "I'm gonna show Flint to his room. We can talk later."

"Gotcha," said Logan. She went back to playing with the dogs.

Flint followed Emma around the corner and down a hallway. "Kitchen's right here, living room in there, bathrooms here, and here's where you're gonna be sleeping." Emma opened a door and Flint stepped into a large room with a huge bed and it's own bathroom.

"How does she afford a house like this?" wondered Flint out loud.

"She hides the bodies for the mob," said Emma. Flint looked at her. She smiled. "I'm just kidding."

"So, how _does_ she afford all of this? Isn't she only 18?"

"Well, she's 19 now, like you'll be in a couple weeks, but she works on weekends as an anesthesiologist. She's not supposed to get paid because she's underage, but she still does get paid."

"Okay... I'm gonna turn in," said Flint.

"Feel better," said Emma. "We've got a busy day tomorrow." She closed the door.

Flint walked around for a few minutes before pulling a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt out of his suitcase. He changed, turned the lights out, and laid in bed.

After a minute, he pulled out his phone and called home.

"Hello?"

"Hey Dad."

"Flint? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," muttered Flint. "Just tired."

"Was it really food poisoning?"

"Kinda. Strawberries."

"What? What happened?"

"It's a long story."

"I've got time."

"Dad," moaned Flint. "Please, I'm exhausted. I didn't get any sleep last night."

"Sorry. What time is it there?"

Flint looked at the clock on the bedside table. "About 7:30."

"That's not that late."

"Well, I'm still on Swallow Falls time."

"Right." There was a short pause. "Flint, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, Dad. This is why I didn't tell you earlier. I didn't want you to worry."

Flint heard a sigh from the other end. "You're right. I'm sorry, son."

"S'okay..."

There was another pause. "Good night Dad."

"Good night. I love you, son."

"I love you too, Dad."

Flint closed his phone and was asleep immediately.

_A/N: Okay, so, I had a pretty bad asthma attack a couple days ago, so what do you know, Flint gets one too! Don't feel bad, Flint. Just go read my other story. One of the characters got his right lung ripped out. Okay, so Flint and Emma's vacation will take up about two more chapters. The next chapter is another sight-seeing bonding moment, but the chapter after that is gonna be really important. Thanks for reading! Who's a slow updater now, nameless reviewer, huh? Thanks guys. I love y'all!_


	13. Rollercoasters

_A/N: Sorry this took me so long to update. I had writer's block with another one of my stories. Oh, and the song in this is called "Into the Night" by Santana. I suggest listening to it while reading that part. Trust me. =P_

**Cloudy Hope**

Flint woke up that morning with the black-furred Chihuahua, Zeus, on his chest.

"Uh... hey boy," groaned Flint. Zeus pulled back his lips and snarled at Flint, growling like a feral animal. Flint wouldn't have been surprised if it's eyes started glowing red.

Slowly, Flint pet the peeved Chihuahua's back, and it's mouth immediately opened so wide it looked like it's lower jaw had become detached from it's skull. After a minute, it hopped up and sprinted out the door.

"I'm gonna have nightmares about that," muttered Flint. He got out of bed and immediately tripped over the Husky, Drix, who had been lying right next to the bed. Flint face-planted and Drix yelped and hopped up.

The door opened all the way, and Flint looked up to see Emma standing in the doorway.

"Flint, you were supposed to sleep on the bed, not the floor," she said. Flint noticed that Zeus was sitting on her shoulder like a parrot.

"Ha ha, very funny," deadpanned Flint, sitting up.

"C'mon, get up and get dressed," said Emma. "We'll leave at around 3. Okay?"

"Okay," muttered Flint. He stood up and Drix ran out the door. Emma closed the door and left.

Flint rummaged through his suitcase and found a short-sleeve dark green shirt and a pair of jeans. He changed and closed up his suitcase. He slipped into his lab coat and left the room, walking towards where he remembered Emma telling him the kitchen was.

All he really had to do was follow the sound of voices and the smell of bacon until he found it. When he walked in, Emma and Logan were sitting at the table, laughing.

"They were really doing that on the side of the interstate?"

"Believe it or not, people just get dumber and dumber." At this point, Emma looked up and saw Flint. "The dead man lives!"

"Good morning to you too," said Flint.

"How'd ya sleep?"

"Lying down."

"Catch," said Logan. She picked up a piece of bacon and flung it at Flint. To his surprise, he caught it.

"Thanks," he said, sitting down. He took a bite out of the bacon and his eyes widened. "Wow..." He looked up and saw Logan staring at him. "What?"

"You have funny hair," she said, smiling. Without waiting for a response, she turned back to Emma. "So where are you guys heading?"

"We're gonna drive up to Busch Gardens," said Emma. "Believe it or not, Flint's never ridden a rollercoaster before."

Logan whipped around and stared wide-eyed at Flint. "You've seriously _never_ ridden a rollercoaster before?" she gasped.

Flint shook his head. "Nope. This is the first time I've ever come to the States."

Logan's jaw dropped, and she was so distracted staring at Flint that she didn't even notice Tiny and Dutchess pigging out on the bacon in her hand.

"Logan," said Emma, waving her hand in front of Logan's face. "Close your mouth before the flies start to nest."

Logan turned to Emma. "You need to fix this," she said.

"Yes, and I am going to," she said. Emma shoved three pieces of bacon in her mouth.

"Mm gmmn thr a smrwer," said Emma around her bacon.

"Okay, just don't use all the hot water," said Logan. Emma gave her a thumb's up and walked out.

Logan turned back to Flint. "Is that _really_ the first time you've had real food in like 8 years?"

Flint nodded. "All we had for food in Swallow Falls were sardines." He shuddered a bit.

"Okay then..."

"..."

The next ten minutes between Flint and Logan were incredibly awkward. In fact, they were so awkward that Qille didn't feel comfortable writing them down. _So... take that._

Emma came back out about 10 minutes later, her blonde hair still wet. She was wearing a dark green tank-top and jeans. Instead of boots, she was wearing tennis shoes.

"Ready to go?" she asked.

"Yes!" exclaimed Flint a little too eagerly.

"Hey!" exclaimed Logan.

"Sorry," muttered Flint.

Logan laughed. "Hey, no problem."

A little while later, their bags were loaded into the back of Emma's car and they were almost ready to go.

Emma turned to Flint as they walked back to the house. "How do you feel?"

"A _lot_ better than yesterday," said Flint.

Emma put her hand on his forehead. "No fever. That's good. So are you ready for some hard-core rollercoaster riding today?"

Flint laughed nervously. "Yeah, sure..."

"Aw, are you nervous?" teased Emma.

"No!"

"Well good!"

They reached the house, and Logan popped out of nowhere. She pulled Emma into a death grip hug.

"Make sure you come by and visit again soon," said Logan. Emma made another choking noise. "Can I get that in writing?"

Logan let go of Emma and, surprisingly, turned on Flint. She pulled him into a rib-cracking hug. When she let him go, she said, "Take care of my best friend or my dogs WILL hunt you down and I won't hesitate to sic Zeus on you." To add to this statement, Zeus appeared out of nowhere from behind Logan and sat glaring at Flint.

Flint turned pale, and Logan smiled. She ruffled his hair. "You _do_ have funny hair."

"Uh..."

"Thanks Logan," said Emma. She and Flint walked back to her car and got in.

Emma started up the car and put down the roof and windows. "Watch this," she said to Flint.

Logan turned around, put two fingers in her mouth, and blew out a sharp whistle. All of her dogs ran out of the house and sat in formation. They went in the order of, sitting next to Logan, Tiny, Dutchess, Farley, Drix, Lilly, and Zeus.

"Ready?" Logan asked the dogs. They all sat up straight. "Go."

All the dogs howled at the exact same time. The only howls that were distinguishable were Zeus's high pitch yowl and Tiny's deep, thunder-like howl.

"I love that," whispered Emma. She waved goodbye to Logan and the dogs, who continued howling, and they drove off, the sound of howling following them all the way down the road.

**xxx**

"We've known each other since third grade," said Emma. "Before I moved to Swallow Falls."

"Okay, so what's the deal with the Chihuahua?" asked Flint.

"No one really knows. He just hates everyone. I think he's possessed by the devil or something."

Flint shrugged. They had been driving for about an hour and a half now.

Emma sighed a bit. She turned on the car radio, and the sound of guitars came out.

"Oh, I love this song!"

The song started and Emma sang along. Even though it was a male singer, she still pretty much nailed it.

_Like a gift from the heavens_

_It was easy to tell_

_It was love from above_

_That could save me from hell_

_She had fire in her soul_

_It was easy to see_

_How the devil himself_

_Could be pulled out of me_

_There were drums in the air_

_As we started to dance_

_Every soul in the room_

_Keeping time with their hands_

_And we sang..._

_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay_

_And the voices ring_

_Like the angels sing_

_We're singing..._

_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay_

_And we danced on_

_Into the night..._

_And we danced on_

_Into the night..._

_Like a piece to the puzzle_

_That falls into place_

_You could tell how we felt_

_From the look on our faces_

_We were spinning in circles_

_With the moon in our eyes_

_No room left to move_

_In between you and I_

_We forgot where we were_

_And we lost track of time_

_And we sang to the wind_

_As we danced through the night_

_And we sang..._

_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay_

_And the voices ring _

_Like the angels sing_

_We're singing_

_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay_

_And we danced on_

_Into the night..._

_And we danced on_

_Into the night..._

_And we danced on _

_Into the night..._

At this point, an guitar solo came on and Emma swayed back in forth in her seat, all the while staying under the speed limit. Flint just watched in amazement. He caught onto the tune and started whistling along.

_Like a gift from the heavens_

_It was easy to tell_

_It was love from above _

_That could save me from hell_

_She had fire in her soul_

_It was easy to see_

_How the devil himself _

_Could be pulled out of me_

_There were drums in the air _

_As we started to dance_

_Ever soul in the room_

_Keeping time with their hands_

_And we sang..._

_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay_

_And the voices ring_

_Like the angels sing_

_We're singing..._

_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay_

_And we danced on_

_Into the night..._

_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay_

_And we danced on_

_Into the night..._

_We're singing..._

_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay_

_And we danced on_

_Into the night..._

_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay_

_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay_

_Singing_

_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay_

_And we danced on_

_Into the night..._

The song ended, and almost immediately Emma shouted: "OH, THERE IT IS!" She pointed out Flint's window and Flint looked over to see... well... rollercoasters!

"Okay, we'll go park, get our passes, and head straight for the rollercoasters!" exclaimed Emma.

"And then what?"

Emma smiled evilly and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. "And then the fun begins."

**xxx**

Flint had never seen rollercoasters up close, so when he first stood under the Griffon, he started falling backwards.

It was getting late, and he and Emma were still in line for the front row.

"It's getting kinda dark out," said Flint. "Maybe we should come back tomorrow."

"No way. I'm not letting you chicken out of this."

"But do we _really_ have to go on the front row?"

"Would you rather have your first rollercoaster experience be lame?"

"Uh... no..."

"That's what I thought!" she exclaimed.

Within a few minutes, they were at the front of the line. They got the last two seats in the front row, with Flint sitting on the edge.

"Lucky," said Emma. "You got the best seat possible for a first-timer."

The girl their age sitting next to Emma poked her head out from behind the harness. "Is this your first time riding a rollercoaster?"

Flint couldn't really see her because his harness and Emma were in the way, but he said: "Yeah."

"Trust me, you'll love it," said the girl.

The gates in front of them opened and they were off. Flint gripped the handles on the harness so hard that his hands turned white. The climb to the top was shorter than he had expected.

"Look at that sunset," whispered Emma. Flint actually looked around. The setting sun was turning the sky pinkish orange, and the stars were starting to come out. Looking out, Flint saw they were surrounded by forest, with a huge lake off in the distance.

"Wow..." he muttered.

"Oh, here we go!" exclaimed Emma. The cart came around the curve and up to the drop. It slowly went over the edge... and stopped.

Flint, being in the front row and on the edge, felt like he was hovering in midair. That was when Emma started to count down.

"5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."

Someone in the back shouted, "I LOVE YOU MOMMY!"

The ride plunged straight down.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!"

As the cart rocketed down the hill, Flint felt like his stomach was in his throat. At the bottom of the hill they went under a bridge and did half a flip when they came out. That little flip made all the blood rush to Flint's head, and his vision turned red for a few seconds. The car did another turn and came up to _another_ straight down drop, not as tall as the last one, but this one didn't stop, and it still made his stomach do backflips. After the drop, the car did another flip, this one all the way, and they came up to a pool of water.

_SPLASH!_

The edge of the car dipped into the water and soaked all the people standing in the blast zone. It came around another curve... and stopped.

Everyone was silent.

"Whoo!" shouted Emma, and everyone else started cheering.

Emma leaned around her harness and looked at Flint. His hair was sticking straight back and his eyes were wide open.

"Flint? You okay?"

"That... was... AWESOME!"

Emma smiled and laughed. "Your hair looks so funny!"

"So does yours! It looks like mine!"

Emma's hands went to her hair and she started laughing. "Oh my gosh... I can't wait to see that picture!"

Their car pulled forward into the station and they got out. As they walked towards the exit, Flint noticed something.

"Emma, how long have you had that necklace?"

Hanging around Emma's neck on a silver chain was a small silver crescent moon. Emma looked down and tucked it back into her shirt. "Must have come out on the ride."

"Why do you keep it in your shirt?" asked Flint. "It looked good on you."

Emma blushed a bit. "I don't like the way it bounces around when I walk. Kinda annoying. Let's go see our picture!" She grabbed his hand and ran towards the picture booth. When they got there, they both spent a whole five minutes laughing their heads off.

In the picture, Flint was screaming his head off with his eyes wide open. His hair still looked like it normally does. But Emma was a different story. Her eyes were wide open and her tongue was hanging out. It kinda reminded Flint of a dog sticking it's head out the car window. But that wasn't the best part. Emma's hair looked like a blonde version of Flint's, sticking up in crazy tendrils.

They bought two copies of the picture and rode the ride about 7 more times until they had to be forcefully escorted out of the park by two large security people.

On the way out, however, Emma convinced the guards to let her buy two bags of cotton candy. Flint had no idea what cotton candy was, but Emma sure seemed excited about it. She went up to a stand and bought two bags of blue and pink fluff.

"What is that?" asked Flint as Emma joined him and the guards.

"I'll show you in the car," said Emma, excited.

Once the guards shoved them out of the park and Emma yelled a few unrepeatable words at them, they went to the car, which was basically the only one still in the parking lot.

Emma started up the car and Flint was shocked to see that it was 11 at night! It felt like midnight, but that was because he was still on Swallow Falls time.

"Okay, what is that stuff?" asked Flint, referring to the bags of cotton candy. "And what language were you speaking when you yelled at those guards?"

"I was speaking Dragonese, and this is cotton candy!" Emma handed him one of the bags.

"Does it really taste like cotton?" asked Flint, nervously opening the bag. However, when he opened the bag, he got a whiff of the stuff. "Whoa... that smells good..."

Flint looked over to Emma, but she had already torn her bag open and half of her cotton candy was gone.

"Wmrf er ygh wmting fer?" asked Emma. Flint tilted his head to the side.

"What?"

Emma swallowed the globs of sugar in her mouth and said, "What are you waiting for?"

Flint cautiously pulled a piece off and put it in his mouth. His eyes widened. "Whoa..."

Emma looked up at the roof of the car. "What have I done?"

**xxx**

"That was the most fun I've ever had ever in one day we have to come back here more often and ride rollercoasters and eat cotton candy every single d- OH LOOK AT THE MOON it's so pretty it looks like it was full last night and the night before that and the night before that but not tonight because tonight it's not full anymore I love long car rides don't you Emma? Huh? Huh? Emma? Emma? Emma Emma Emma Emma Emma Emma-"

"Shut up! I see the moon and I like long car rides," growled Emma. "I knew I shouldn't have given you that much sugar."

"What why no way I love sugar and that cotton candy stuff that stuff was awesome!" exclaimed Flint. He was jumping up and down so much he was making the car vibrate even more than it could while going down the interstate at 2:30 in the morning.

"Are you tired yet?" asked Emma.

"No I'm not tired yet why would I be tired I ate a whole bag of cotton candy man I love this vacation this is the best day EVER! Are you tired yet?"

"I've told you before, Flint. I'm nocturnal. And don't worry. By the time we get to the hotel you'll be exhausted."

"I really completely seriously doubt that I'll be that tired by the time we get to the hotel are we there yet so I can prove to you that sugar can keep me way up are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet?"

Emma face-palmed herself.

"Emma don't high-five your face it's not good for your brain!"

"I think I'm going through enough brain damage."

"Are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet?"

"YES! WE'RE HERE!" exclaimed Emma. She almost missed her turn, but after a few minutes of speeding, law-breaking, reckless driving, and illegal u-turns, Emma pulled into the parking lot.

Emma hopped out and got her and Flint's bags. She handed Flint his suitcase and locked the car. They both went inside; Emma walked and Flint practically did cartwheels.

Emma walked up to the lady at the front desk and got a room. Meanwhile, Flint stood uncomfortably fidgeting with the handle on his suitcase.

The lady at the front desk handed Emma a room key, and Emma turned around to face Flint. She took his suitcase and put it on one of those cart things with hers. Suddenly, she heard a crash behind her and she whipped around to find Flint asleep on the floor.

The lady at the front desk stood up. "Do you want me to call an ambulance?"

"Nah," said Emma. "He just crashed from a sugar high." She walked over to Flint and picked him up. She put him on the cart with their suitcases, where he continued to sleep. Emma looked back at the lady at the front desk. "Little brothers. What are ya gonna do?"

The lady at the front desk smiled and nodded. "He's your _little_ brother?"

"By a year. Hard to tell, right?"

"Okay," said the lady at the front desk, clearly wanting to get back to her magazine.

Emma shook her head and rolled the cart over to the elevator, Flint still sleeping peacefully on the suitcases.

**xxx**

Flint woke up the next morning in bed in a hotel. Across the room, Emma slept on another bed, still in her day clothes. Flint saw he was still wearing his day clothes too.

_How did I get up here?_ he asked himself. All he remembered the night before was being jumpy and standing in a hotel lobby, then suddenly the world turned black and now here he was.

He sat up and stretched his stiff back. Across the room, Emma yawned and opened her eyes. She immediately located Flint.

"Remind me never to give you sugar again," she said, sitting up.

"Ha ha, not my fault," said Flint.

Emma flipped out of bed and pulled some clothes out of her suitcase. She walked into the bathroom, yelling at Flint to change and get ready to go. He noticed that Emma had fallen asleep with her tennis shoes still on.

Flint changed into his favorite blue shirt and jeans. As he put on his lab coat, Emma came back out wearing a yellow t-shirt, jeans, and her infamous black boots.

"Okay, ready to hit the road?" asked Emma, shoving her dirty clothes back inside her suitcase and closing it up.

"Yeah," said Flint, snapping his suitcase closed.

"Okay, let's take the suitcases out to the car and come back in for breakfast."

Flint's stomach growled at him. "Sounds good to me."

They went downstairs and put their stuff in the car. When they came back inside, Emma returned the room key and they went into the little cafe across the lobby.

Emma set a coffee down in front of Flint.

Flint sniffed it. "What is this?"

"Coffee," said Emma. "Be careful. It's got caffeine in it."

Flint took a careful sip. "It tastes weird."

"It's an acquired taste."

Flint pushed it to the side. Emma sighed. "Y'know, coffee can be your best friend during long car rides."

Flint looked indifferent.

"Wow, tough crowd," muttered Emma. She went up to the counter and got a handful of different foods. For half an hour after that, the only thing Emma said was: "Okay, now try this."

**xxx**

"So... where exactly are we going again?" asked Flint, looking out the window.

"We are going to D.C." said Emma. "Look!" She pointed out Flint's window. He looked out and saw the Washington Monument.

They parked the car and spent the rest of the day drifting around D.C. Flint even tried churros for the first time, and he had about ten more that day. As for everything else, Qille was once again too lazy to write it all down.

Later that night, Flint and Emma _finally_ found the car again. It was about 9 o'clock, and the lights of the city were shining bright. Flint had his face plastered to the window, trying to take it all in.

Emma laughed at him. "Are you sore from all that walking?"

"Just my leg," said Flint, not taking his face away from the window. Emma smiled again and put the roof and windows down. Flint stuck his head out and let the wind blow on his face.

After a while, he looked over at Emma and saw her smiling at him. "What?"

"I've never seen you look this happy before."

Flint sat back in the seat. "The last time I remember feeling this happy was..." His smile fell. "... was about 11 years ago when my mom gave me my lab coat..."

Emma tugged her silver necklace out. "My dad gave me this. It's the only thing I have left of him."

"You never did tell me about your dad," said Flint.

"I said it was a sob story for a rainy day." Emma glanced up at the stars. "It ain't raining." After a few minutes, Emma glanced over at Flint. "Do you remember anything from the accident?"

Flint looked out the window. "I was just talking to her about inventing a flying car. Then a pair of headlights appeared out of nowhere, she swerved the car, and next thing I knew I was trapped. I couldn't feel my leg, I couldn't breathe, my arm was broken... I remember my mom holding my hand and telling me to hold on... I can't remember anything after that. I don't even remember being pulled out of the car. But that was the last time I saw my mother..."

They were both silent for a few minutes until Emma spoke up.

"If she hadn't swerved then you both would have died."

Flint looked up at her. "What?"

"I saw a picture of the cars. The driver side was way worse off than the passenger side. She swerved to the right and that was where the other car hit. If she didn't swerve, it would have been one of those head-on collisions you see on disaster shows. You both would have died."

Flint was silent. After a while, he turned back to Emma. "I told you what happened to my mom; you have to tell me what happened to your dad."

Emma pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Not much to it. There was an accident in his shop, a welding torch left on or something. The whole place burnt down. He was still in there when the roof collapsed. A beam fell on him; broke his spine. He died a few days later..."

She sighed and reached over under the dashboard, pulling out a small crumpled up picture. She handed it to Flint and he smoothed it out. The picture showed Emma, maybe five years old, sitting on her father's shoulders. Emma had longer hair, freckles, a gap in her front teeth, and most shocking: she was wearing shorts and she was barefoot. Her father had thick glasses and sandy-blond hair that fell into his eyes.

Flint handed the picture back to Emma, and she put it in the pocket of her aviators jacket.

_She's not telling me something_, thought Flint. However, he didn't say anything. He had had enough sadness for the night.

"So..." he said, trying to change the subject. "Where are we heading?"

Emma smiled. "We're goin' to New York!"

_A/N: I hope y'all enjoyed the nice long chapter. I just HAD to add the song in there because I've been listening to it for days! And yes, you will eventually learn the full story of what REALLY happened to Emma's father. Not a very happy story._

_Who would have been freaked out if Zeus did that to you?_

_Okay, one more thing: Emma has a FanFiction account. Her pen name is Emma Evermonth (which is her full name). She updates her profile after every story update and tells you a bit of background on what happened in the story. Seriously, go check her out! PM her if you wanna talk to her. =D_

_Love y'all. Thanks for the reviews!_


	14. Skyline

_A/N: Okay, so this is Flint and Emma's last day in the States. Sorry for not updating sooner. I'm taking an online summer PE course so I won't have to take it during school. So in other words, I had homework to do... One more thing: I'm going on vacation tomorrow. I'll be gone for a week. Sorry..._

**Cloudy Hope**

"Oh my gosh..." muttered Flint as he looked around. He and Emma were currently standing right in the middle of time square. The sun had almost set, so the lights of the city were shining bright. Flint wouldn't stop turning in circles, trying to take everything in.

"Told ya you'd love New York," said Emma, smiling. Today was their last day in the States, so Emma wanted to make sure it was a good one.

After pulling Flint out of the way of a taxi jumping the curb, Emma led him into a candy store. Flint hyperventilated for a few minutes, and when he finally calmed down, they bought as much candy as they could carry.

"Going back to sardines is gonna suck," said Emma as they walked out of the store with their arms loaded with candy. Flint had even made sure to buy a jumbo bag of gummy bears for Steve that would possibly put him into a sugar coma.

Emma looked at her watch. "Okay, so we should probably get going in an hour if we wanna catch the ferry. We've got time to do one more thing. So... what do wanna do?"

Flint thought for a minute. Slowly, a smile spread across his face, and he told Emma what he wanted to do.

Emma smiled too. "Good choice. Let's go drop our bags off at the car."

They sprinted down the sidewalk as fast as they could. It didn't help that they were going against the flow of people. When they made it to the garage where Emma had parked her car, Flint tripped and fell. Emma tripped over him and also face-planted.

After a few minutes of laughing, they got up and started collecting the scattered candy.

Flint rubbed the side of his ribcage where Emma's foot hit. He felt a bruise forming. "Dang Emma, are you wearing steel-toed boots or something?"

Emma laughed. "Nah, my foot's just made of metal," she said, tapping her left steel-toed boot against the wall, making a _clink_ noise.

"Well that explains how you drive," muttered Flint.

Emma rolled her eyes and went back to picking up the bags. A few minutes later, they made it to Emma's car and put all the candy in a cooler in the trunk.

"Okay, we gotta hurry," said Emma. "The line's gotta be long by now!"

They ran out of the garage and, a few minutes later, made it to their destination. Surprisingly, the line wasn't very long at all!

"Well, we sure lucked out, didn't we," said Emma as they boarded the boat.

"Well I wouldn't know," muttered Flint. "Can we sit on the top deck? Please?" he asked with the tone of a child asking for a cookie.

"Yes, child," said Emma. They made their way to the top deck and stood at the front, where they could see everything.

The boat started moving and a cool sea breeze picked up. Flint's lab coat billowed behind him like a small sail or a superhero cape. Emma didn't turn to the side to look at Flint, because if she did, her hair would be blown into her face and she would look like 'Cousin It.'

The lights of the city and the moon were reflected off the dark water, and the sun had already sunk behind the horizon. The air was starting to cool down, which was a relief from the blistering hot day.

"So..." said Emma, closing her eyes and enjoying the feeling of the wind in her face. "You kinda happy to head back home?"

"Kinda..." said Flint. "I'll be happy to see Steve and my dad again, but still... life in the States is... awesome!"

"Most of it's awesome," agreed Emma.

A few minutes later, the boat docked at their destination: Ellis Island. Flint and Emma stepped off the boat and looked up at the Statue of Liberty in all it's glory.

"Are we allowed to go up there?" asked Flint.

"I dunno," said Emma. "Let me see..."

A few, threatening-the-employees-filled minutes later, Flint and Emma stood in the crown of the Statue of Liberty.

"Oh my gosh," muttered Flint, pressing his face up against the window. There was only one word to describe the view: awesome.

Flint looked up at the sky. The moon was half full. "When was the last full moon?"

"Uh... the night we left, the night we were on the boat, and the night we stayed at Logan's place," said Emma. "Why?"

Flint shrugged. "I dunno. I haven't seen a full moon in a while."

"Aw man, I wish you hadn't been sick at Logan's house. The full moon was _beautiful_! I should know," said Emma.

"How? Were you sitting outside on the roof with the dogs, howling?" asked Flint.

Emma stared at him for a minute. "Wow... you really must have been dead to the world if you didn't hear all that howling. I swear, Zeus can shatter glass!"

"Yeah, that was a rough night."

Emma pressed her face against the window too. "There's the next boat. We better head out."

Flint and Emma made their way back down to the docks and boarded the boat back to the mainland. Once they got there, they went back to the car and started driving towards Rhode Island. Flint made sure to get a good look at the disappearing city skyline. However, that was when the strangest thing happened to him. He got hit with a strong sense of déjà vú. It felt like he had seen that before...

Flint quickly turned around in his seat and shook it off.

"You okay?" asked Emma, never even taking her eyes off the road.

"Yeah," muttered Flint. "Fine... It doesn't matter..."

Emma shrugged. "Whatever you say..."

* * *

Emma and Flint were driving through Rhode Island. It was late, and they were only ten minutes from the dock when Flint remembered something.

"Stop here!" he exclaimed. Emma slammed on the breaks.

"What?" she asked him.

"I just remembered something! Can we make a quick pit-stop?"

"Uh... sure..." Emma pulled into a parking lot and Flint hopped out of the car.

"I'll be right back!" he exclaimed. He then ran into a nearby pet store.

Emma sighed and relaxed in her seat. She must have dozed off because the next thing she knew, Flint was tapping on the window. She unlocked the door and let him in.

"So what'd ya get?" asked Emma, rubbing her eyes.

"See for yourself."

Emma opened her eyes and gasped. Flint held a cage. Inside the cage were two sleeping rainbow colored birds.

"Are those parrots?" asked Emma.

"I think the guy in the store called them scarlet macaws or something like that," said Flint.

"Why?" asked Emma.

"Remember how I told you that... someone... wanted me to invent something beautiful mixed with something people take for granted?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, we need these birds to do that!"

"Okay, but you're not gonna hurt the birds, are you?" asked Emma, looking up at Flint with wide eyes.

"Of course not!" exclaimed Flint. He carefully set the cage on the floor between his feet.

"Okay, but how are you gonna feed them?" asked Emma, starting up the car again.

"You must have been tired. I just brought out like a 100 pound bag of bird seed. They'll be fine for years!"

"Okay..." muttered Emma as she pulled out of the parking lot. "But wait, what are you gonna mix them with? What's something people take for granted?"

Flint thought for a minute. His mind wandered to boats. Boats were sometimes crawling with rats. Rats. Mixed with birds...

"Ratbirds."

_A/N: Okay, I know it's short, but it's important. And give me a break, I'm exhausted! I'll update Dead by Dawn when I get home, and NR, after I update the last story in my rounds (yeah, I go in order) then I'll start the Gremlins CwaCoM crossover. Again, sorry it's so short, and I promise to try and make the next chapter WAY longer! All this school work is murdering me... Oh well, good night..._


	15. Ratbirds

_A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update. I'm juggling 5 other stories now. And can someone PLEASE tell NR that Cloudy With a Chance of Gremlins is now up for him to read, so he can stop BUGGING me!_

* * *

**Cloudy Hope**

It was probably the middle of the night when the elevator door burst open and Emma sprinted at full speed into Flint's lab.

"FLINT!" she shouted.

Flint, who had been asleep, sat bolt upright. Steve, who had been sleeping on Flint's chest, got flung across the room. When he landed on the floor, he just readjusted and continued sleeping.

"Emma! What is it?" groaned Flint, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Don't you know it's like... stupid o'clock in the morning?"

"It's not stupid o'clock, it's o-dark-thirty," said Emma. "Now come _on_! It happened!"

That really woke Flint up. "When?"

"Just half an hour ago! I was in the shower and I came out and _boom_, there they were!" she exclaimed.

"Really? How many? ...Wait, why were you in the..." Flint finally got a good look at what Emma was wearing. There were insanely fuzzy slippers that might as well have been fur-covered boots covering her feet, there was a towel wrapped around her hair like a turban, and she was wearing a _giant_ furry bath robe that was so big it covered her entire body, from her neck to her slippers.

"There are three, and I came as soon as I saw them!" exclaimed Emma.

"Wait, you mean to tell me that you ran across the entire town at 3 o'clock in the morning in a _bath robe_?" asked Flint.

"Psh, it's 3 in the morning! No one's gonna be up to see me!" said Emma with a careless wave of her hand, which was barely visible through the sleeve. "And I'm wearing sweat pants, so I'm good."

"O-kay," said Flint, standing up and pulling a jacket over his t-shirt. "I'll be right back, Steve!"

Steve continued to sleep.

Flint turned back around and found Emma already at the door to the elevator. "C'mon!"

Flint walked over and entered the elevator. They both rode down in an awkward silence that only an elevator can conjure up. The second the elevator doors opened, they both darted out and crept towards the street. They encountered a slight problem, however.

Tim's bedroom window was right next to the backyard gate. Tim wasn't know to be a heavy sleeper, so they had to be quiet. From outside the room, Flint could hear Tim snoring. As they crept past, however, Flint stepped on a dead twig.

_SNAP!_

The sharp sound echoed through the silent night. Flint and Emma stopped dead in their tracks as the snoring from inside the room stopped. After a few minutes that stretched out for an eternity, a light in Tim's room turned on. Flint and Emma quickly pressed themselves up against the outside wall and out of sight, just as Tim opened the curtains and looked out.

Flint could see his father's shadow, and he pressed himself even closer to the wall. When he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder, he started to scream. Before the scream could escape, he found a hand over his mouth. Looking to the left, he saw that the hand belonged to Emma. She put a single finger to her mouth, telling him to be silent. Flint nodded and Emma took her hand away. They slowly shuffled along the side of the house until they reached the gate and slipped out into the street. Looking back, Flint saw Tim turn his light out and close the curtains, returning to bed.

"That was too close," gasped Flint, clutching his chest as he and Emma crept down Main Street towards Emma's house.

"You okay?" asked Emma, turning around and looking at him. "You look a little pale."

"Can we stop for a minute?" asked Flint as he dizzily sat down next to a fence. "I think that gave me a heart attack!"

"Well, you sure performed well under pressure," said Emma, kneeling down in front of Flint.

"Yeah, but I usually collapse after everything settles down," laughed Flint. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his inhaler. He fingered it for a moment before putting it back in his pocket.

"I'm glad you don't really need your inhaler anymore," said Emma, standing up. She held out her hand for Flint, and he took it. Emma pulled him to his feet and they continued walking.

"Yeah, I'm glad too," said Flint.

"Remember that time in 9th grade when you-"

"Yes..." muttered Flint, thinking back to that horrid day in the lunch room...

It had been around the middle of their 9th grade year when Daniel had gotten hold of a strawberry. He got it from a visit to the States, and he took it to school with him one day to brag. Daniel had walked right into the lunch room and sat down right across from Flint. When he saw how Flint recoiled from the strawberry was when he attacked.

Daniel had somehow managed to get the strawberry smeared all over Flint's face, resulting in Flint getting some of it in his mouth. Flint didn't really remember anything after that except waking up in the hospital. Daniel had gotten suspended from school for a month, and Emma had gotten suspended for a week for breaking Daniel's nose while attempting to stop him.

Flint shuddered at the memory and fingered the inhaler in his pocket.

"Ooooooh," muttered Emma, looking up at the sky.

Flint looked up too and his eyes widened. The moon was shining bright over the ocean and the stars were twinkling in the night sky. There wasn't a cloud in sight.

"Is the moon full?" Flint asked Emma.

"Not yet," said Emma, staring longingly up at the moon. "It'll be full tomorrow night."

"Oh... well, do you wanna come over tomorrow night? My lab roof makes an awesome place to watch the stars," said Flint.

Emma smiled. "No thanks. I'm busy tomorrow night."

"Oh well," shrugged Flint.

A few minutes later, they arrived at Emma's house, which was the only house on the block to have it's lights on.

Flint shot a questioning glance at Emma, who simply shrugged and said: "I come from a family of dyslexic asthmatic insomniacs."

"Try saying that ten times fast," muttered Flint.

"Only my mom's home. My grandparents are in the States," said Emma, walking up to the front porch and opening the door.

The second Flint stepped through the door, he was greeted with a blast of warm air that smelled like a mix of chocolate chip cookies and firewood. Emma's mother, Lauren, was sitting at the kitchen table, reading a book and sipping from a cup of hot chocolate. She looked up and, when she saw Flint, smiled.

"Hi Flint, I haven't seen ya in a while!" she exclaimed in her thick southern accent. "Want a cup of hot coco?"

"No thanks, Ms. Evermonth," said Flint, following Emma to her room.

"Suit yourself, honey," she said, sipping from her own cup again.

Emma turned down the hallway and opened a green-painted door that was decorated with a massive assortment of bows and ribbons from 10 years of Christmas presents. The words _Emma's Dojo_ was painted on the top of the door.

"You're one of a kind," muttered Flint.

Emma smiled and opened the door. She and Flint stepped inside. Emma then reached over and grabbed a large wad of strings hanging on a hook by the door. She took them all in her hand, swung them around, and smacked what was on the end of them into the wall.

The sound of someone running over a 100 pound bag of walnuts with a truck resonated through the room. A second later, a faint yellow glow filled the dark room. Flint looked at what was on the end of the strings. Glow Sticks.

"Watch where you step," said Emma. She then jumped on a small circle on the floor and flew five feet in the air. As she reached the peak of her jump, she took one of the strings and hung it on a tiny hook on the ceiling. She landed and repeated this strange process about 25 more times. After a few minutes, every single hook on her ceiling had a bright yellow Glow Stick hanging from it.

"Well, that's something I've never seen before," said Flint, staring at the room completely illuminated by Glow Sticks.

"Yeah, my room doesn't see too much light," said Emma. "But these are still fun to play on." She jumped on one of the circles and bounded across the room, landing on another circle.

"What are these anyways?" asked Flint, looking down at the circle nearest him.

"Trampolines, duh," said Emma, bouncing in place.

Flint slowly stood on one and took an exploratory bounce, only to almost hit his head on the ceiling.

Emma laughed a bit and stepped off of her mini trampoline. "Here they are," she said, walking over to a bright corner of her room. In this corner stood a large bird cage. Inside the bird cage sat the two Scarlet Macaws that Flint had purchased a month ago in the States. Beneath the sleeping female Macaw lay three large eggs.

Emma slowly opened the cage door, which, in turn, awakened the male Macaw.

"Good morning, Paco," said Emma, gesturing to the awakened male Macaw. At this point, the female Macaw woke up too. "And good morning, Perla."

Emma reached towards Perla. The Scarlet Macaw stood up, and Emma picked up two of the three eggs. She then closed the cage door and turned around, handing the two eggs to Flint. Flint instantly clutched them to his chest, keeping them warm.

"You're not gonna hurt them, are you?" asked Emma nervously, her love for animals kicking in.

"Of course not," said Flint reassuringly. "I better get home and get these guys in the incubator."

"All right," said Emma. "Good night."

Flint left the room, saying goodnight to Emma and Ms. Evermonth on his way out. As he started walking down the street towards his house, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being followed...

After walking a couple blocks, Flint turned around. He didn't see anything except the moonlit road behind him. Clutching the eggs closer to his chest, he started walking again, this time a little faster.

_SNAP!_

Flint whipped around when he heard the twig break. Again, he didn't see anything. However, his breathing started getting faster and his palms started sweating as that unnerving feeling of being watched settled in again. Suddenly, a street light nearby went out. He quickly turned around and started walking even faster now.

Suddenly, he whipped around and _just_ saw the dark figure before it managed to hide itself in the shadows. Flint turned around and took off at a full sprint. When he was almost home, he dared a glance behind him. He couldn't see anyone, but he knew he was still being followed.

Flint made it to his house. He ran for the gate, but the lock was stuck! He frantically tugged on the lock with one hand, holding the eggs in the other. He heard footsteps coming closer and his adrenaline sent him literally rocketing over the fence, into his back yard. Not even bothering to be quiet, he sprinted across the back yard and into the elevator, which shot him up into his lab.

Flint stumbled inside and turned on every single light. He dared a glance out the window and didn't see anything. Only the quiet, moonlit street.

Closing the window and locking it, Flint turned around and shut off power to the elevator so that the only one who could get in or out was him. He then walked over to another corner of his lab where an incubator was already set up. He gently placed the two eggs inside and locked it so that Steve couldn't get to them.

_Speaking of Steve..._

Flint turned around and saw Steve, hanging on to a square beam on the wall with his tail, sleeping. Flint smiled and walked over to the monkey. He gently picked him up and laid him on his bed, where he curled up in a ball and continued sleeping. Flint thought about how funny it was that Steve's tail, when curled up, made the shape of a square. It was probably from hanging from square rafters and square machines all his life.

Flint shakily sighed and turned off the lights... well... _most_ of them... Most meaning one light.

Moving Steve out of the way, Flint laid back down, not even bothering to take off his jacket. He didn't sleep at all.

* * *

"Good morning!" exclaimed Emma as she stormed through the elevator door.

Flint, who had been studying something in a small cage, jumped three feet in the air as if electrocuted. "HOW DID YOU GET UP HERE! I thought I shut off power to the to the elevator..."

"Oh, you did," said Emma, taking her lab coat off the hook next to the door and slipped it on.

"Then... how did you-"

"Flint, I can hot-wire thirty different cars, seventeen different motorcycles, two types of trucks and tanks, and a pogo stick. An elevator is no problem!"

Flint stared at her.

"... So what are you working on?" asked Emma, walking towards Flint.

"This!" exclaimed Flint, stepping to the side and revealing what was in the cage with a wave of his hand.

Emma looked at the creature. "Flint... child... this is a rat..."

"Yes, I know," said Flint, an evil genius smile spreading across his face.

"Okay, will you _please_ explain to me what you're gonna do? And why do you need the eggs!"

"Watch and learn, little sister, watch and learn," said Flint. He picked up a hypodermic needle and opened the cage door. He gently picked up the rat, which immediately started squirming. Flint stroked it's back a couple times and it calmed down. He then quickly but carefully pushed the tip of the needle into the rat's skin, drawing blood.

When he got enough blood, he put the rat back and brought the needle over to another corner of his lab. He started doing something with test tube that Emma could only guess at.

"Steve!" exclaimed Steve as he popped out of nowhere and hopped up on Emma's shoulder.

"Hey, Steve," said Emma, scratching the monkey affectionately under the chin.

"Happy..." cooed Steve.

"So Flint, what are you doing with rat blood?" asked Emma. "Checking for the plague?"

"No, I did that this morning," muttered Flint, bent over various bottles and flasks of chemicals. "I'm extracting DNA."

"...Why?"

"You'll see," said Flint. A few minutes later, he picked up what looked like a glass stick with a round hook on the end. He dipped it into a test tube and carefully pulled out what looked like mucus. He then put the mucus stuff into a tiny bottle. He continued doing that until the bottle was mostly full.

"There!" he exclaimed. "One hundred percent rat DNA!"

"That didn't take long at all," said Emma as she awoke from her nap in the corner. She stood up and looked at the bottle's contents. "...It looks like phlegm."

"True," said Flint. He reached into a drawer and pulled out another hypodermic needle that ended in an incredibly tiny point. Flint drew up a syringe full of DNA and walked over to the two Scarlet Macaw eggs.

"You're not gonna hurt them, are you?" asked Emma as she walked right beside Flint.

"This shouldn't hurt them one bit," said Flint, opening up the lid on the incubator. He took a deep breath to keep his hands from shaking. Emma turned off Steve's thought translator.

Flint gently placed the tip of the needle on the first egg shell and very gently pushed the very tip of it through the shell. He was extremely careful not to break the shell or cause too big of a hole, but when the microscopic tip of the needle went in, he pushed the plunger all the way down, emptying the rat DNA into the egg. He then refilled the syringe again and repeated the process with the other egg.

After what seemed like hours, Flint closed the lid on the incubator. "Done..."

"What did you _do_?" asked Emma, turning Steve's translator back on.

"Well, if I'm lucky, then I just created a new species!"

"What?" gasped Emma.

"NEW!" shouted Steve, jumping in the air and waving his tiny fists around.

"Do you even know what you just did?" asked Emma. "What if you just created some freak of nature that kills everything in sight?"

"Relax, they should be harmless," said Flint.

"Well, if they are harmless, then what do you expect them to do?"

"Well, they'll probably breed," said Flint. "I scanned them this morning. One of them is a boy and the other is a girl."

"When did you decide to even do this?" asked Emma, gesturing to the two eggs.

Flint's face fell and he suddenly found his ankles the most fascinating thing in the world. "Well... um... it was a... a request... from... someone..."

"They wanted you to create a mix between a rat and a bird?" asked Emma, sitting down at a desk and tinkering with a small metal object.

"Well... she wanted me to make something beautiful mixed with something people take for granted," said Flint, sitting down on his bed. Steve jumped in his lap, and Flint started petting him.

Emma sat up a bit. "She...?"

"It's nothing," muttered Flint, standing up. He turned away from Emma and started to walk over to his computer.

"You're talking about your mom," said Emma.

Flint froze in his tracks. "Am I really that readable?" he asked after a minute.

"You're not the only one with a tragic past," muttered Emma, pulling the picture of her father out of her pocket for a second before putting it back. She stood up and walked towards Flint, who was still frozen in place. "So... on a different note, why did you have the power to the elevator shut off?"

Flint slowly sat down on his bed again. Emma didn't fail to notice that his eyes were a little red. "I think someone was following me last night."

"Did you see them?" asked Emma, sitting down next to Flint.

"Not their face," said Flint. "I swear, it scared me so bad that I slept with the lights on."

"Really?" asked Emma. "I would think you'd be better off with the lights off."

"Really, and why's that?"

"Well, if you keep the lights off, then they won't be able to see you from the outside. And you'll still be able to see them. Do ya get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah..." yawned Flint. "I'm tired... I didn't get any sleep last night..."

"Really?" asked Emma. "I just woke up!"

"It's two in the afternoon."

"So?"

"What do you even do all night?" asked Flint, laying down and curling up in a ball. Steve came and sat on his head.

"Oh, y'know, just run around the forest, howl at the moon, and chase small animals. The normal thing us insomniacs do," said Emma, standing up and stretching. Her back made a wicked cracking noise.

"Maybe you should see a doctor for that," muttered Flint as he started to fall asleep.

"For what? My insomnia or the noise my back just made?"

"Yes..." mumbled Flint. He then fell asleep. Emma rolled her eyes and left.

* * *

A few weeks later

"Can you believe it?" gasped Flint. "I can't believe it actually worked!"

In the palm of Flint's hands sat two tiny creatures. They had the body of a rat, but they had a beak on their face and the wings of a Scarlet Macaw sticking out of their backs!

"What are you gonna call them?" asked Emma. She gently poked one of the creatures, and it squawked loudly at her. She jerked her hand back before it could bite her.

"Ratbirds," said Flint. "They're gonna be called Ratbirds."

Exactly one week later, Emma got a phone call from Flint.

"Emma, can you come over here? We have a serious problem..."

Emma rushed over to the lab to find Flint standing next to the cage the two now fully grown Ratbirds had made a nest in.

"What is it? What's the problem- oh..."

Covering the entire bottom of the nest were eggs.

"There's gotta be at _least_ thirty of them!" exclaimed Flint.

"How long do you think it'll take for them to hatch?" asked Emma.

"Less time than it took the first two," muttered Flint.

Flint's words rang true because, exactly two weeks after all the eggs were laid, Flint woke up to the sound of relentless squawking. The cage was filled to the brim with Ratbirds.

Flint immediately picked up his cell phone. "Emma, get the video camera. We're gonna introduce these things today..."

He hung up the phone and hopped out of bed. "Steve, keep an eye on them."

"Steve?" muttered Steve nervously. The second Flint closed the door, Steve hid under the bed.

Flint went down the elevator and ran into the house. He skidded inside and found his dad sitting at the kitchen table, reading the paper.

"Heeeeey, Dad," said Flint, slowly sitting down across from his father.

"What kind of invention do you want to show me this time?" asked Tim without even looking up from his paper.

"Wha- how did you know I-"

"I've known you for 18 years, Flint. I know when you want to show me something."

"O-kay, well, can I show you?" asked Flint.

"When?"

"Later this afternoon!"

"Where?"

Flint thought for a minute. "How about in the Town Square?"

"Is it really that big?" asked Tim, putting down his paper.

"Well, they're not big, we'll just need a lot of space..."

"I don't know..." muttered Tim. "I don't really like the sound of that..."

"Oh, c'mon, Dad! Pleeeeeeeeeeeease?" Flint begged, clasping his hands together.

Tim groaned. "Alright, Flint, but this better not be like your last invention!"

"Aw, c'mon Dad, Steve didn't mean it, he was just excited!"

Tim did nothing.

"... Okay, well I'll show you at noon in the Town Square."

Before Tim got a chance to respond, Flint bounced to his feet and took off running back up to his lab.

* * *

It was high noon, even though it was hard to tell through the cloud cover. Flint had put a cloth over the cage chocked full of Ratbirds, and he now carried the cage through the crowded streets. Swallow Falls was a small town, so by noon, just about _everyone_ knew that Flint had a new invention, and there was a large crowd gathered to watch.

Flint made his way through the crowd and finally found Emma, setting up the tripod with the video camera on top. Flint gave her a wave and almost dropped the cage. He caught it at the last minute and set it on top of a wooden crate in plain view of the camera.

Flint took the cloth off of the cage and the people gathered stopped talking and started watching. Flint took a moment to glance around. He saw his dad, but he also saw Officer Earl, Daniel, Dr. Faris, and Mayor Shelbourne.

_Oh boy..._ he thought.

Emma turned on the camera and gave Flint a thumbs up.

Flint cleared his throat and shouted: "RATBIRDS!" He took an awkward side step towards the cage of Ratbirds. "Hey, what's goin' on, little guys?"

The second Flint touched the cage, it busted open.

And all hell broke loose.

* * *

_A/N: I'll leave y'all at that. Join us next time as we see the Ratbirds kick everyone's a$$! And let me say, I wrote the first part of that chapter at home alone in the dark. And then my dog started barking. Result: AAAAHHHH! I hope you get my point! Oh, and sorry for taking so long (again). Peace out!_


	16. Attack

_A/N: Bring on the mayhem. Oh, and I have no clue what NR looks like, so... I'm just taking a shot in the dark. Bear with me._

* * *

**Cloudy Hope**

The Ratbirds scattered instantly, attacking anyone who got in their path. Surprisingly though, they didn't attack Flint. More than half of them went _straight_ for Mayor Shelbourne.

"AAAHHH!" screamed Mayor Shelbourne as a swarm of 20 Ratbirds started chasing him towards the docks. He ran as fast as his stumpy legs could carry him.

Flint jumped around, trying frantically to catch a Ratbird. Tim ran past him, being chased by three Ratbirds. A single Ratbird flew at Emma's camera, knocking it over. Emma lunged for the camera and tried to catch it, but she was too slow. It smashed when it hit the ground, and all Emma got was a scraped up hand. She quickly took the undamaged tape from the video camera and put it in her pocket so that it didn't get carried away. Daniel was having his hair ripped out, and Dr. Faris had _conveniently_ disappeared. Officer Earl lunged to tackle Flint, but a swarm of Ratbirds kept him away. Four teenagers were hiding in trash cans.

"They'll never find us in here," said one of the girls, Kalina.

"That's because these things smell like rotten sardines," moaned another girl, Lydia. Her voice was distorted because she was plugging her nose.

"Won't those Ratbirds be attracted to the smell of the sardines?" asked the boy, Jacob.

"...Good point," muttered Kalina.

"Guys, look at the Mayor!" exclaimed the last girl, Amy. She stood up out of her trash can and pointed towards the docks. "RUN STUMPY, RUN!"

The four teenagers laughed as they watched the Ratbirds chase the Mayor down to the docks. They laughed even harder when a large group of Ratbirds picked him up and dropped him in the ocean.

"I think he needs some Ratbird Repellant," said Amy.

"Maybe we should do that for our school science project," said Jacob.

"Ugh, I hate school," muttered Lydia.

Suddenly, a boy about their age ran by them and jumped into the trash can next to Kalina, avoiding being carried off by a swarm of Ratbirds. The boy had light wavy brown hair, wide brown eyes, and freckles.

"Uh, hi," said Kalina.

The boy poked his head out of the trash can. "Hi. I'm William."

"I'm Kalina, and this is Lydia, Jacob, and Amy," said Kalina. She then looked up and exclaimed, "Whoa!" All five of them had to duck down to avoid being dive-bombed by the Ratbirds.

Meanwhile, the Ratbirds continued to destroy the town. A large swarm of them were still surrounding the Mayor, but the rest were attacking the townspeople.

"Flint, what happened?" shouted Emma, wielding a large stick and trying to fend off any Ratbird that dared get too close.

"I don't know!" exclaimed Flint still trying to catch the beasts. "They were mentally stable this morning! Maybe they don't stay in their eggs long enough for accurate brain development, and they're primal!"

"IN ENGLISH!" shouted Emma, trying to get her stick back from an angry Ratbird. Another one started pecking her in the ribs while she was distracted.

"They don't have brains!" shouted Flint.

"Well there's your problem!" exclaimed Emma, getting her stick back and swatting away the ones that were pecking at her. "Now fix it!"

Flint looked around frantically. Everyone was being chased or pecked at or carried off. But not him.

Flint put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. Everyone, including the Ratbirds, froze in their tracks, staring at Flint. The Ratbirds slowly flew up and out of the reach of everyone else. They gathered right above Flint in a giant swarm, but they didn't hurt him. They just stayed there.

Suddenly, the Mayor stumbled up, soaking wet and fuming with anger.

"Flint Lockwood!" he growled, loud enough to make sure everyone heard. "What on earth were you thinking releasing these _things_ on everyone in the town?"

"I-I wasn't... They weren't supposed to... to hurt anyone," stammered Flint, backing up away from the Mayor. Everyone started crowding towards him, looking angry. His chest started to tighten up and it got harder to breathe.

_Oh no,_ thought Flint. _Please please PLEASE don't let me have an asthma attack now!_

Everyone started to get closer, and Flint's back hit the wall of the building he was backed up against. In the back of the crowd, Emma and Tim were trying to force their way through. Daniel was also trying to get to Flint, but for much different reasons.

Just when everyone started to get within attacking distance, all the Ratbirds swarmed down, their backs facing Flint, hissing and squawking at the crowd of angry townspeople. The people to the left of Flint backed away from the Ratbirds, clearing a path.

"RUN FLINT!" shouted Emma. "RUUUUUN!"

Flint took her advice and ran for his life. However, as he ran, he heard the Mayor call out: "You're banned from ever bringing your crazy inventions into public! You hear me? BANNED!"

Flint didn't think about that as he rounded the corner and headed for the forest.

* * *

Flint burst into the clearing where his second lab was. He quickly scrambled up onto the platform and dashed inside. Flint's second lab was now as big as his first one; the only difference was that this one was only four feet off the ground.

Flint ran inside and collapsed on his knees, gasping for breath. He had tripped a couple times in the forest, scraping up his hands and knees. He thought he remembered dropping something along the way, but he was in too much of a hurry to pick it up.

After somewhat catching his breath, Flint sat down and put his head in his hands.

_What am I gonna do?_ he thought. _I can't show my face in public again for a while or everyone's gonna kill me. I can't go home because my dad's gonna kill me..._

Flint sighed and leaned back against a stack of microwaves. He was exhausted from running so far, blood was starting to seep through the knees of his pant legs from the scrapes he had gotten when he fell, he still couldn't breathe, and he felt the crushing weight of defeat weighing down on him.

Suddenly, he heard something outside. It sounded like something was dropped on the roof. Flint stood up and walked out, looking around. He didn't see anyone. He looked up and started climbing the dome of his lab. When he got to the top, he found...

...his asthma inhaler.

_So THAT'S what I dropped when I fell..._

Flint picked up his inhaler and put it in his pocket. He wondered how in the world it got there. For something to drop it on the roof, it'd need to be... flying...

Flint looked up and saw all of the Ratbirds sitting in the branches of the trees above him. One of them slowly fluttered down and landed on Flint's knee. Flint gently stroked it's fur and looked up at all the others.

The other Ratbirds, gaining courage from the first one, all slowly fluttered down, surrounding Flint.

"You guys need to stay out here for a while," said Flint. "If you go back to the town too soon, the people will kill you. Understand?"

The Ratbirds let out a squawk of understanding.

Flint smiled. "Awesome."

Flint slid down the dome of his lab and went inside, pacing back and forth. Most of the Ratbirds returned to the trees, but about three of them followed Flint inside. They sat on Flint's desk and watched him pace.

"You guys weren't a failure," Flint muttered, almost to himself. "But they all still think that. I need something that'll show them how wrong they are. They think all of my inventions are stupid and harmful, well I'll show them. I need to invent something. Something awesome. Something that'll make everyone _know_ that I'm _more_ than just some backyard inventor. I'm a _real_ inventor." Flint stopped and looked up. "I'll make you proud, Mom..."

He closed his eyes and started pacing again, but he tripped over a rack of unused blueprint papers. He sat up and looked at them for a minute before grabbing one and walking over to his desk. The Ratbirds fluttered out the door.

Flint grabbed a pencil and turned on his desk lamp. He grabbed a pencil in his left hand, mainly because his right hand had a pretty bad scrape on it, and he's ambidextrous so it doesn't matter. Now all he had to do was come up with something to invent...

* * *

A few hours later, Flint had nothing. He put his head on his desk, moaning in frustration. A few minutes later, he dozed off...

* * *

_Flint was 10 years old again. He was about to run out the door to catch the bus, but he was stopped by a gently hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw it was his mother._

"_Flint, you forgot this," she said, handing him a cup of orange Jell-O._

_Flint smiled and hugged his mother. "Thanks, Mom!"_

_He turned and ran out the door, into the pouring rain. A second later, the rain stopped. He was sitting in the front passenger's seat of his mother's car._

"_Mom?" whispered Flint, looking up at his mother. Fran didn't answer. She just kept driving._

_Flint looked forward and saw that they were driving into an inky black fog. Suddenly, everything turned white, Flint's left leg started hurting, and he heard the distant echoes of screeching tires and shattering glass and crunching metal. He heard the beeping of a heart monitor and the laughing and jeers of hundreds of people. Everyone's finger was pointed at him. Everyone was laughing at him..._

_Flint shied away from all of the painful noises. Just when he thought he couldn't take it, a long, low howl rang out, and the voices stopped. Flint found himself limping on a crutch through the forest, talking to a younger Emma._

"_Wow... that's elaborate... you really just came up with that?" asked Emma. Flint nodded eagerly. Emma thought for a second. "I can make it work."_

"_Awesome!" Flint exclaimed. That was when he noticed Emma's watch. It was getting late. "We'd better go."_

_They continued walking and, after a while, Emma started a conversation._

"_You wanna know something crazy?" asked Emma._

"_Shoot," said Flint._

"_Well, when I was in the 3rd grade, I used to come up with ideas for little inventions all the time. Actually, I came up with this one that I think you could actually do."_

"_Don't leave me hanging, what is it?"_

"_Well, I was thinking about this little book that I read when I was younger, where there was a town where it rained food! I can't really remember what the book was called, but it gave me an idea. An invention that could make it rain food!"_

* * *

Flint gasped and sat bolt upright in his chair. Before he knew it, he had already filled twenty blueprint sheets with different designs for the machine that would turn water into food. He couldn't stop drawing different designs! The ideas just kept flowing in.

Finally, after two hours, Flint ran out of blueprint paper. He only had one idea left. Looking around, Flint found a sticky note. He quickly picked it up and scribbled down his last idea on it.

Flint smiled and dropped the pencil, his hand burning. He rolled up all the blueprint sheets, found a back pack, and loaded them up. He took the sticky note and started to put it in his pocket, but he remembered something.

"What am I gonna call it...?" After a moment of thinking, he got it. He picked up the pencil one last time and wrote:

_Flint Lockwood Diatomic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator!_

He put the note in his pocket and sprinted towards home.

When he was about half way home, he started to get that feeling that someone was following him again... It was already dark out, and the light of the full moon was just casting more ominous shadows. Flint started to walk a little faster. He heard the bushes rustling behind him, and that was when he took off running.

Finally, Flint made it to the edge of the forest. He burst out onto the streets... and tripped over the curb.

Flint quickly turned on his back, expecting to be staring down the blade of a knife or the muzzle of a wild animal, trying to kill him. Instead, he saw nothing. Sitting up, he looked at where he had just burst out of. What he saw almost gave him a heart attack.

Standing on all fours, just out of the light, was a dark figure, staring at Flint. He knew it was staring at him because he could see the glowing green eyes.

Suddenly, the figure turned and darted back into the forest. Flint stood up and slowly approached the spot where the figure had been. In the mud where the figure had been standing were paw prints. Before Flint could even _think_ about what that meant, he heard a long low howl cut through the night.

"Wolves..." he gasped, stumbling backwards. "We've got wolves."

* * *

Flint stood in the hallway of his lab, inspecting the purple decontaminating lights.

"I'm sure these things are working," muttered Flint. He looked over at Steve, who was sitting in the main area of the lab. "These things decontaminate anything that comes in here. So I'm sure those Ratbirds didn't get infected with some kind of virus that mutated their brains."

"Steve?" muttered Steve, cocking his head to the side.

Flint smiled and picked up his monkey. "C'mon Steve, let me show you what I came up with."

Flint carried Steve over to his desk, where he had laid out all of the blueprints. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the sticky note with the last design on it. Afraid it would get lost, Flint walked over to his Inspiration Wall and stuck it up there.

"Hungry!" exclaimed Steve.

"Don't worry Steve," said Flint. "When I get this machine up and running, _no one's_ gonna ever have to worry about being hungry again."

Flint rolled out his first blueprint paper. He started to gather his materials, but then he stopped. "Steve, do you know where Emma is?"

"No," said Steve, shaking his head.

"Hm..." Flint shrugged and ran into the elevator. Once it reached the bottom, he ran out into his back yard and through the door, almost making Tim spill his coffee. "Dad!"

"Wha-"

"Have you seen Emma?" asked Flint.

"Uh, last time I saw here was this afternoon," said Tim, setting his coffee down. "She said she was gonna go looking for you..."

"Okay, okay thanks Dad," said Flint. He started to run out but stopped, turning back around to face Tim. "Dad, why are you drinking coffee? It's almost 10:00!"

"Uh..."

Flint shrugged. "I'll just call her cell phone. Thanks Dad." With that, he ran out.

* * *

"_You've reached Emma's cell phone. If you wanna leave a message please wait for the beep, the press pound, press three, then dial your name, then press six and dial your number, then press star, press sixty nine, ask for extension forty four, forty three then leave your name and message. If you want to leave your number and the time you called, please press star twice, bark like a dog, spin in a circle, press one twenty six times and wait for the beep. And thank you for calling."_

"Um... that's some voicemail you've got there," said Flint into his cell phone. "Just... call me back once you get this. I came up with a new invention, and Steve is spinning in a circle and barking like a dog... Thanks..."

Flint hung up the phone and sighed.

"Well Steve, it looks like it's just you and me tonight," said Flint looking at his dizzy monkey.

"Ste-e-e-e-e-e-e-eve!" exclaimed Steve, falling over.

Flint laughed and got right to work. "Goodbye Swallow Falls," muttered Flint. "They're gonna have to call this town ChewandSwallow by the time I'm through with it..."

* * *

_A/N: And, now we finally start getting into the movie! Don't lie, how many of you want that voicemail that Emma has! It's a mouthful! Now it's time for me to go play in a volcano! Dracona Fuego here I come! By the way, sorry I didn't update earlier today. We had an earthquake (in Virginia, of all places!)!_


	17. The FLDSMDFR is Born

_A/N: I don't want school to start! I haven't even finished my summer reading assignment! And RSE, sorry but there is no kidnapping... yet. You find out what happened to Emma in this chapter._

* * *

**Cloudy Hope**

"What is that?" asked Emma, looking over Flint's shoulder.

Flint turned around and looked at the blackened heap of twisted metal. "One of my latest inventions," he muttered.

"Are you still trying to build the food machine?" asked Emma, trying to see Flint's blueprint table. However, it was hard to see anything other than Flint on the computer screen.

"Don't worry," muttered Flint, putting his head down on the desk. "That was my last blueprint."

"What is that?" came a voice from behind Emma. Another face appeared on the computer screen, so close to the camera that all you could see were green eyes, blond hair, and freckles.

"Go away, Adam!" exclaimed Emma, shoving her cousin out of the shot.

"It's my house!" exclaimed Adam off camera.

"My computer!" shouted Emma. She groaned in frustration. At the moment, Emma and her mom were staying in New York with Emma's cousin Adam. "Where were we?"

"I just used my last blueprint," muttered Flint.

"Is that good or bad?" asked Emma, adjusting her web-cam so that Flint could see her.

"It's bad!" exclaimed Flint. "Nobody is eating the sardines anymore, not even the locals! This machine would have changed everyone's life!"

"Yeah, but look what it's doing to you," said Emma. "You've been at this for two years! How many times have you gone to the hospital after one of those things blew up on you?"

Flint rubbed his bandaged side, which was still healing after being slit open with a piece of metal shrapnel. He looked around his lab and saw scorch marks and human-shaped dents in the wall. "Um..."

"Exactly!" exclaimed Emma before sighing. "I just don't wanna see you kill yourself over an invention..."

Flint stood up. "Well if I can't invent, then what _am_ I supposed to do?"

Emma sighed and started to say something, but her computer screen started to fuzz up. The picture got all distorted, and she hurried to say something, but it was really rough. "I- -min-... -oday! D-t d- -nyth- stupid!"

Flint winced as the last word rang loud and clear. The screen went dark as the signal was lost. Flint sighed and shut off the web-cam.

"Steve?" muttered Steve, jumping up on Flint's shoulder.

"Don't worry," said Flint, rubbing the monkey's head affectionately. "Emma's gonna come back soon. She's just taking a little... vacation."

"Why?" asked Steve.

"She won't tell me," said Flint, standing up and pacing. "She just said if I knew I would already be dead..."

"Hungry!" exclaimed Steve.

Flint thought for a moment. His eyes fell on his inspiration wall, landing on the sticky note with his final invention design on it. If this one failed, then he was out of luck. Flint grabbed a can of sardines and handed it to Steve. "Chew on this for a while. I'll be back."

Flint ran over to the window and opened it. It was still extremely early. The sun hadn't even come up yet, and Flint could still see the stars. He smiled and left the window open, letting the cool early September breeze float in through the window. After taking off his lab coat and putting on a dark blue hoodie jacket, he turned and ran to the elevator, going down and ending up in his back yard. Silently, so as not to disturb the silence or wake any Ratbirds sleeping nearby, he dashed across the lawn and jumped the fence, which he had gotten good at lately, even though his side and his leg protested greatly.

Flint took off at a light jog, heading towards the forest. He would stop every so often to check and make sure the bandages on his right side were still dry, mainly because he didn't want to go back to the hospital. The doctor had told him not to do any heavy lifting while, so that he didn't stress the wound. Of course Flint ignored him.

Flint entered the forest and slowed to a walk, his breath creating a frosty mist in the cool predawn air. He would stop every so often to listen and see if anyone was nearby. Ever since being followed by some mysterious stalker and seeing the wolf, Flint had become a lot more paranoid whenever he was alone. He fingered the slingshot in his pocket, his only defense if he was attacked. Flint had made the slingshot himself, and he knew from experience that it wasn't getting hit with one that hurt; it was digging the rock out of your arm that kills you.

He made it to his second lab without a problem. Inside, he gathered up as much material as he could possibly carry. Screens, spare metal, microwaves, a large satellite dish that washed up a year back, metal crates, paint, and a ton of other stuff. The pile turned out to be larger than Flint. He decided on making two trips. He lifted up the top half of stuff and carried it all the way home, quietly pushing open the gate and leaving them by the elevator.

Flint made it back to his second lab and got ready to take the last of the stuff, but his eye caught something. He moved over to the wall and took down the Geiger counter.

_I might need this if I'm gonna be dealing with radiation,_ thought Flint. He put it on top of the second stack and moved out.

Flint made it to the edge of the forest before his side started feeling a bit wet. He stopped right by the road, but out of sight, and set down the boxes. He unzipped his jacket and peeled it away from his side. Of course he just so happened to be wearing a white shirt underneath, so he could see exactly how much blood had leaked through the bandages.

"Damn it," he muttered. He quickly zipped his jacket back up and carried the rest of the boxes home. After setting them outside of the elevator, he looked at his watch and saw that it was about 3:30 in the morning. He didn't have any more gauze left at home, so he'd have to go get some.

Flint put up his hood and quickly jogged down Main Street, quiet so as not to alert anyone to what he was doing. A few minutes later, he reached the 24-hour drug store. His 25 year old cousin Megan ran the night shift.

Flint quickly opened the door and slipped inside. He found his cousin at the front desk, reading some kind of history book (Megan was a history major).

Megan looked up from her book as Flint approached the counter. "Flint, what did you do this time?"

"Nothing, I just need a couple bandages and I'll be out of your face," said Flint quickly, rocking back and forth on his heels.

Megan stood up and grabbed Flint's arm, pulling him into a back room. "Let me see."

Flint crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head like a stubborn child.

"Flint, let me see it," she demanded, using a tone that a mother would to scold her child.

Flint sighed and unzipped his jacket. Megan made him take it all the way off, and she sighed when she saw that the right half of Flint's shirt was covered in blood.

"Flint, what did you do this time?"

"Nothing!" exclaimed Flint. "I was just... moving some stuff."

"At three in the morning?"

"I don't wanna bother anyone!"

Megan face-palmed herself. "Alright, just take your shirt off and sit down."

"What? Why?" spluttered Flint.

"So I can make sure you don't bleed to death," said Megan, grabbing a roll of gauze.

Flint sighed and peeled his shirt off. Megan got right to work changing the bandages, not commenting on how thin Flint was. She quickly and effectively peeled off the bloody bandages, revealing the long jagged wound underneath. The stitches had come out a while ago, but the wound was still fragile and able to open. She started wrapping new bandages around Flint's chest.

"So..." said Flint after a minute, "when are you heading back to the States?"

"In two hours," said Megan. "First semester at college starts next week."

"Right..." muttered Flint.

A few minutes later, Megan finished. "There, that should hold ya for a while," she said, handing Flint a few more rolls of gauze. "But y'know, you might wanna go back to the hospital and get that checked on. Don't want it to get infected."

"Yeah, right, sure," said Flint, standing up. "I'll do that tomorrow. Can I have my shirt back now?"

Megan held up Flint's bloodstained shirt. She took it into the back and came out again without it. "No. I'll wash it and leave it in your mailbox before I go. Wear your jacket."

Flint groaned and pulled on his jacket, zipping it up over his bare bandaged chest. "Thanks Megan."

"Yeah, before you go, just tell me one thing: what are you doing out this early?"

Flint smiled. "Don't worry, you'll know soon enough."

"Right, I'll definitely read about you in the obituary," said Megan, guiding Flint out the door.

"But it's not gonna fail!" exclaimed Flint. "It's gonna-" The door slammed shut. "-work..."

Flint sighed and slowly started trudging home. He stayed close to the tree line just in case anyone came by. When he was almost home, however, he heard footsteps. Quickly hiding behind the nearest tree, he whipped out his slingshot and pulled a quarter-sized rock out of his pocket and waited, listening to the steady footsteps come closer.

Just when the person got within striking distance, the footsteps stopped. Flint didn't dare to breathe. Suddenly, he saw a dark figure slow step out of the shadows, looking in his direction. Of course, he knew the person didn't see him, thanks to his black jacket and the fact that he had his hood pulled up, hiding his pale face while not obscuring his view.

Suddenly, the person stepped forward. Flint let go of the rock.

_THUMP!_

"AAAAAHHHHHH!" came a scream. The person crumpled to the ground, grabbing their leg and spewing a rainbow of colorful words. Flint used the person's distraction to make a quick escape, dashing deeper into the forest and only exiting when he was practically in his back yard.

He hopped the fence and shoved all the boxes into the elevator, barely leaving enough room for himself. However, he did manage to fit in by climbing on top of the boxes, curled up in a ball and pressed against the roof of the outhouse. He pulled the door closed and the elevator moved.

When the elevator reached the lab floor, Flint pushed open the door and tumbled out. He then wasted no time dragging the boxes of equipment inside.

Flint finally managed to get everything inside his lab. He looked around and saw that the window was still open. Steve was sitting on a swivel chair chewing on the sardine can. After slipping into a new shirt and his lab coat, he saw that it was 4 in the morning. Time to invent.

Flint took a deep breath. "This is it. This one's for you, Mom."

He then strode dutifully across his lab, flicking a switch on the wall that turned on all the lights and dials and screens. He stepped up to his inspiration wall, hands planted firmly on his hips. His eyes located the sticky note and he took it off the wall. He turned around and held it up dramatically. Right at that moment, a strong breeze blew in from the window, ruffling his hair and lab coat.

_Man, I wish Emma's camera hadn't been destroyed,_ thought Flint. _That would have been an awesome shot!_

Coming back to reality, Flint turned and found Steve.

"Steve!" he exclaimed, pointing to the chair that was currently occupied by the monkey. "My best friend and trusted colleague!"

Steve's chair slowly turned around to face Flint. He was still chewing on his can, but he looked up when he saw Flint. "Steve."

"Can I count on your help?" asked Flint.

Steve sat for a moment before holding up his can. "Can."

Flint smiled. "I knew I could!"

* * *

The machine was almost done! It was wired up, painted, and it looked totally awesome! Now all Flint had to do was...

"Uploading cool machine voice!" said Flint as he typed. With Emma gone and no one to talk to, he had gotten into the habit of saying what he was doing.

"Cheeseburger," said the machine in a cool deep mechanical voice.

Flint smiled and picked up a pitcher of water. "Everyone... is going to love this," he whispered as he poured the water into the top of the machine. He flipped the "ON" switch and sat back to watch.

The machine started whirring and humming. Colorful lights were pouring out of every crevice. The loading bar under the picture of the cheeseburger was slowly filling up. Flint slid a plate underneath the machine's out-port opening.

Slowly, around the out-port and over the plate, formed a gusty cheeseburger that looked to be made of water vapor. Flint slowly put his hands down over the plate so that the burger would be right in his hands when it formed.

It was almost there. The bar was almost full! Flint's eyes widened as he felt the warmth the burger was putting out in it's almost solid form.

_It's working!_ Flint thought. _I actually did it! I-_

He never got a chance to finish that thought. The power the machine was drawing all surged, cutting electricity to everything in the lab. The almost-burger exploded into water and Flint and Steve were thrown backwards. From outside the lab, Flint could hear the zapping and popping of electricity.

"FLINT!" he heard Tim scream. The power in the house had probably gone out too.

"Sorry Dad!" yelled Flint. He sat up and quickly put his hand under his lab coat, breathing a sigh of relief when he found the bandages to be dry. He stood up and put Steve on his shoulder, walking back to the machine. At the table, Steve jumped off of Flint's shoulder and grabbed a bucket and a spoon. He then proceeded to beat the bucket unconscious with his spoon.

Flint examined the machine. On the screen, an error message was displayed. It read: "Error! Not enough power!"

"Hm..." muttered Flint. He quickly turned and ran to the hallway. "Steve, keep working."

Flint ran over to the hallway, which was now covered by a cool curtain that looked like a door. He had bought the curtain on e-bay the previous year. He had also rigged a motion sensor to the curtain so that whenever someone came in, a pleasant female voice said "Welcome, Flint." This was also a good alarm system, because if someone came through the curtain, Flint would be woken by the voice.

"Scanning hand," muttered Flint, putting his hand on the curtain and adding his own sound effect. He shoved through the curtain and ran to the elevator. He pressed the four colorful buttons that didn't do anything, but looked cool. After satisfying his need to be a spy, he shoved the elevator door open and got inside, going down to ground level, humming a cool-sounding theme song all the way down.

He ran across the yard, ignoring the jeers of the children looking at him over the fence. Unlike them, he knew there were Ratbirds sitting on the roof of his lab at that instant. They would attack the kids if they felt like they were threatening him. Flint hoped they remembered to _move_ their victims to another location instead of actually attacking them.

As Flint ran inside, he saw that the lights inside were also off, and it was around 6 in the morning. The sun was starting to come up on the other side of the island. Flint grabbed a flashlight and ran over to the power box. He opened it and put the flashlight in his mouth so that he had full use of both hands.

_Looks like I blew the spark plug,_ thought Flint. Pretending to be a robot, he reached down and opened the drawer of the desk he was next to. That was where Tim kept the extra spark plugs in case something like _this_ happened.

Still making his robot noises, Flint took an extra spark plug and unscrewed the busted one. He quickly replaced it with a new one and smiled when all the lights came back on.

Still smiling, he turned around...

….and screamed at the top of his lungs when he saw Tim standing there. The flashlight fell out of his mouth and he turned to make a break for it, but there was nowhere to run. Except straight into the power grid.

_ZAP!_

Flint's world turned black and he crumpled to the ground.

* * *

_A/N: So sorry for not updating in forever, and so so so so so sorry that this was short. I didn't go into detail on the making of the FLDSMDFR because Flint already did that, and it's complicated and I'm on a time limit and I start school tomorrow! OH S***! School starts tomorrow! It may take a while for me to update. School comes before FanFiction, and if I ever wanna become a Geneticist, I need to go to school. Sorry! And yes, you find out who Flint shot with a slingshot. If anyone guesses correctly, I'll give you this: (:::) A virtual cookie!_


	18. Be Prepared

_A/N: Hey look! I finally found something sharp and cut the rope binding me to my mountain range of homework! Haha! But that's only for tonight, so I'll just get right to the story. I think I hear Qille Hill tying a lasso to try and rope me again! I'LL NEVER SURRENDER!_

* * *

**Cloudy Hope**

The darkness faded away, and Flint found himself on the floor. His face was stinging and he could smell singed hair. He saw Tim looking down on him in concern.

Flint stood up with a groan. He quickly glanced at the clock and saw that he had passed out for a solid five minutes.

"Son, are you okay?" asked Tim, awkwardly taking a step towards Flint.

"Yeah, I'm fine Dad," said Flint. He brushed off his lab coat and tried to wipe most of the scorch marks off of his face as he walked towards the sliding glass door and into his back yard.

"Flint," he heard Tim say behind him, "don't you think it's time to quit this _inventing_ stuff and get a real job?"

"No, why?" asked Flint, turning around. He heard Steve making his way towards the ground courtesy of the elevator tube.

"Well," muttered Tim, "all this inventing stuff just ends in disaster!"

Flint knew _exactly_ what his father was referring to. "The Ratbirds, yes, they escaped and bred at a surprising rate of one week resulting in primal brain development, but I took care of that problem and _disposed_ of them!"

That wasn't true at all. He had never made any attempt to kill a single Ratbird. As if to prove this point, he heard a screaming and a squawking from behind him, and he heard Cal yell: "Billy! Just play dead!"

"Flint, you can't catch a fish if you don't have any bait," said Tim, looking serious.

"What?" asked Flint, cocking his head to the side in obvious confusion upon the use of yet another fishing metaphor.

"I want you to come work full time at the tackle shop," said Tim, getting right to the point.

"What? _No_!" exclaimed Flint, exasperated.

"Tackle is a good career," said Tim, trying to persuade him to accept it. But Flint knew the _real_ reason his dad wanted him to work at the shop. It was to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't get himself killed with another invention.

_Dad still doesn't trust me... He just doesn't understand._

"Please Dad, I'm so close with this one!" exclaimed Flint. At this point, Steve ran up and hopped on Tim's shoulder, eying the 'stache. "I just need to hook it up to the main power station, get more power, and it'll work! And then you can sell food in the shop and everyone won't have to eat sardines anymore! It's going to be so _awesome_!"

"I'm sorry son," said Tim, lifting the facial hair stealing monkey off of his shoulder and dropping him on the ground. "No more inventing." With that, he turned away and started to move back into the house.

"Dad, I know I can do this!" exclaimed Flint. Tim didn't stop walking, and Flint lowered his voice. "And Mom did too."

At this, Tim stopped and Flint closed his eyes. He gently touched the scar on his left cheek, the one he had gotten from the car accident. It had been almost ten years now since that rainy afternoon that Flint couldn't remember. It seemed that every day the incident fades away. It must have been from shock or blood loss, but now, all he remembered from that day was that he got a cup of orange Jell-O for lunch, it was raining, and there was a bright pair of headlights. And that was when he became a cripple and lost his mother.

"C'mon," said Tim, breaking Flint from his trance. "Let's go open the shop." He walked back into the house without looking back.

Flint sighed and looked at Steve, who was sitting on the ground chewing on his own foot. Flint shook his head and picked up Steve. He walked to the door and called into the house: "Dad, I'll meet ya at the shop in a bit."

Tim didn't respond. Flint quietly turned and went back up into his lab. He put away all of the cords and electrical outlet ports and tools that he had used. He lifted up the FLDSMDFR and grabbed a couple jumper cables. He might need those later.

Flint went down the elevator with Steve and crept into the yard. He quickly hid the machine and jumper cables under a cloth. "Steve, I need you to guard this," said Flint, setting the monkey down on top of the machine. "I'll be back at noon."

"Steve!" exclaimed Steve, jumping in the air once before sitting back down on top of the machine with a determined expression on his furry face, his keep orange eyes scanning the yard for any potential machine thieves.

"Good boy," said Flint before running off. Tim's car was gone, so he must have gone to the shop already. Flint jogged down towards Main Street, still not regretting never learning how to drive. He couldn't help it. It had become a permanent phobia.

When Flint reached the shop a minute later, Tim was climbing down off of a ladder. Not taking notice of Flint, he took the ladder around back and came back a minute later, a little shocked to see Flint.

"Oh, you're already here son."

He sounded a little disappointed. "What were you just doing Dad?"

"This," he said, smiling. He took hold of the rope hanging next to him and pulled it, yanking a tarp off of something on the front of the store. The tarp fell and revealed a new sign with fresh paint. It was nailed to the wall. Now the storefront said: "Tim's and Son's Sardine Bait and Tackle Shop."

_Well, that's not grammatically correct..._ thought Flint.

"Tim and Son's Sardine Bait and Tackle!" exclaimed Tim, gesturing towards the sign proudly. "Are ya feeling it?"

Flint nodded and smiled nervously. Tim went inside and Flint braced himself for a day that would change his life forever.

* * *

Sam Sparks sat in the van on a ferry, staring at the approaching island. She had gone quiet and was nervously wringing her hands against the steering wheel. It had been about 10 years since she had last set foot on the island, but she could still remember the vivid stink. It was cloudy and gray as ever.

She wasn't scared, though. She hardly scared that easily anymore. Sure, she was still kinda spastic, but she didn't scare.

Sam glanced over at Manny, who was quiet as ever, polishing his camera. She had only known him for a few years, but in all that time he's hardly ever spoken other than when it was absolutely necessary. And if there was one thing she knew best about him, it was that he used to be a surgeon. You could tell just by looking at his hands and how small they were. He's got surgeon's hands.

Sam returned to her thoughts. She closed her eyes and rested her chin on the steering wheel, a bit tired from talking so much. She needed to save up her energy to give the best weather report _ever_.

_Well,_ thought Sam, _at least there's a hotel in town. Now I don't have to stay with _them_..._

The boat stopped as it docked. Sam opened her eyes and started up the car, feeling as energetic as ever.

_Bring it on._ The gate opened and she drove the van into town.

* * *

Flint stood stacking cans in a neat little pyramid. He was slumped over with boredom, and nothing was happening, so he turned on the small television in the shop. As always, he was greeted with a Baby Brent Sardines commercial and the Mayor talking.

The Mayor started talking about how he spent the entire town's budget on something without telling anyone. _This guy is trying to kill us all..._

He said more stuff, and mentioned that there was gonna be some kind of _grand unveiling_ at noon. Perfect. That way the whole town would be distracted while he got to the power station.

The Mayor's voice came through again. "Featuring a live performance by Baby Brent himself!"

As if attracted by the sound of his own name, Brent slammed the door open right as Flint turned the television off.

"What is up everybody!" shouted Brent as he staggered towards Flint, one girl clinging to each arm. He leaned in close to Flint. "What ya doin'? Stacking cans with me on them as a baby?" Flint didn't blink, and he tried not to cough at the rancid odor of sardines. He was scraping rock bottom on energy reserves now, and he tried to recall the last time he had eaten anything. It had been a while, and he feared another collapse was coming soon.

Brent, being the show-off he is, whipped his butt around and knocked over the pyramid of cans that Flint had spent an _hour_ stacking. "Uh-oh!" he exclaimed in a babyish voice. Flint just glared.

"So I get to cut the ribbon at the Mayor's grand opening thingy," said Brent, bragging. Not that Flint really cared. "I'm gonna be using _these_ bad boys to help save the town!" He pulled out a _giant_ pair of golden scissors. Flint wondered where he had been hiding them.

For that one second, as Brent held the shiny reflective scissors in front of his face, Flint couldn't help but feel a bit of jealousy. Brent got everything he wanted. Sure, his dad left before he was born and his mother died of cancer only two years ago, but everyone loved Brent. He may have only been a poser for the town, but at least no one hated him like they did Flint. And Flint was only trying to help! Flint stared at his scrawny pale reflection for a moment, realizing how pathetic he must look.

The moment passed when Brent pulled the scissors away and stuck them in the back of his pants. "Boo-yah!" shouted Brent, waltzing out. "Yeah, alright you guys, sardines! Yeah! Swallow Falls forever!"

As Brent closed the door, however, Flint noticed something. Standing across the street, leaning against the wall of a building, was Daniel. He was glaring right through the glass at Flint. That was when Flint took notice of the bandage around Daniel's shin. Flint's eyes widened and he was suddenly angry at himself that he had left his slingshot at home.

_So why was Daniel following me last night?_

Flint shuddered, totally creeped out.

All the customers in the shop (all two!) got up and left, seeing as it was almost noon. Tim started to walk out the door, but he turned back to Flint, who stood motionless in the staring contest with his mortal enemy. "Are ya coming?"

"Y'know what Dad, why don't you go ahead," said Flint. Daniel still hadn't moved. "I'll stay here and hold down the fort."

"Really?" asked Tim, a look of shock passing over his face. "You sure you can handle it?"

"Yeah Dad, I'm pretty sure," said Flint, smiling. "I'll be fine."

"Well uh... alright then," said Tim. "See ya in half an hour, Skipper." With that, Tim walked out the door and closed it. Across the street, Daniel still hadn't moved.

As soon as Tim was out of sight, Flint rushed forward and locked the shop door, flipping the sign to _Closed_. He quickly ran into the back room and grabbed his lab coat. He froze for a second and then dared to peek around the corner. Daniel had turned and was following the crowd, walking towards Town Center. Flint breathed a sigh of relief and slipped out the back door.

* * *

Steve was a very determined monkey. When Flint ran through the gate and into his back yard, he saw that Steve hadn't moved an inch.

"Steve!" exclaimed Flint, halting in front of his monkey and giving him a salute.

Steve stood up straight and saluted Flint back. "Steve!"

"Are you hungry?" asked Flint, his evil genius smile creeping onto his face.

"Hungry!" exclaimed Steve, jumping onto Flint's shoulder.

"Awesome!" exclaimed Flint. He picked up the machine and put the cables in his lab coat pockets. He ran inside and grabbed a bottle of water too before making a beeline to Town Center.

* * *

Flint sat crouched against the small cement wall keeping him out of view. He quickly peeked over the wall and saw his dad, looking the other way towards the makeshift stage. Holding the machine in front of his face, he tiptoed across the gap in the wall and hid on the other side. The power station was in sight.

"We just need seven thousand more gigajoules," Flint whispered to Steve. Flint peeked around the corner again just to make sure no body was watching. His father was still facing the stage, and he spotted Daniel, farther up near the center of the crowd. He wasn't looking either. Flint looked to Steve. "Okay, go go go go go go go go!"

Flint popped up and took off at a sprint. He was facing backwards to make sure no body turned their heads, but he didn't count on anyone being _in front_ of him!

"WHAT ARE YOU DOIN' FLINT LOCKWOOD?" shouted Officer Earl. Flint screeched to a stop and his the machine behind his back.

"N-nothing, just holding my hands behind my back respectfully sir," stammered Flint, smiling nervously.

"You know what you are, Flint Lockwood?" Earl shouted. "A shenaniganizer!" He hopped clean over Flint, and Flint had to quickly turn to keep the machine hidden behind his wire-thin frame. "A Tom-fool!"

Earl hopped back in front of Flint and pointed to Cal, who had just appeared out of _nowhere_. "You see my beautiful angel son, Cal!"

"Sup," said Cal.

"I love 'em so much, this is my only son!" exclaimed Earl. "I want him to have a bright _future_! A future in which you don't ruin our town's _date_ with one of your crazy science doody-boppi-thingys!"

"W-well that's all behind me now," said Flint. _Literally, it's right behind me!_

"You see this contact lens, Flint Lockwood?" shouted Earl, pulling a contact lens out of nowhere. "This contact lens represents _you_ and my eye represents my _eye_!" He put the contact lens in as he said the next thing. "I got my eye. On. You..."

Flint gulped and noticed someone walking right down the middle of the street. "Oh my gosh, a J-walker!"

"HEY!" shouted Earl, spotting the J-walker and tackling him. Flint took this moment to run. With a laugh, he imitated Earl's voice in his mind, saying: _"I pity the fool who J-walks on my street!"_

Flint slammed himself against the concrete wall surrounding the power plant. Ignoring all the signs that told him he was in danger of being electrocuted, he slid along the wall in his best ninja moves and looked up at the rusty towers that were sparking arcs of lethal electricity. But Flint didn't see the danger. Instead, he saw the machine in his hands and enough power to make it work.

"This is a great idea."

* * *

_A/N: There! Yes, this plot is going to be different from the movies. It'll probably still follow the plot line for the most part, but hey, if you add in a couple OC's, make the main character a cripple WHO IS ALLERGIC TO STRAWBERRIES, and alter everyone's attitude a tiny bit, then the whole thing turns out different! So review! (And in case you were wondering, the strawberry allergy is EXTREMELY important later!)_


	19. Cloudy with a Chance of WHAT!

_A/N: What can I say? Things finally start to pick up, and it took me this dang long! I'm very disappointed in myself. *shakes head* Well, enjoy! Oh, and RSE, you're right. Fran's headband IS blue! How did I not notice it before...?_

* * *

**Cloudy Hope**

Flint opened his eyes and found Steve looking down at him.

"Hurt?" asked Steve.

"No Steve, I'm fine," said Flint, standing up with a wince. He quickly moved his lab coat aside and peeked under his shirt at the bandages. A thin red line of blood had appeared, but it wasn't much. "Just a little crispy." This was the second time he had electrocuted himself that day. The only reason he survived was because his Spray-On Shoes didn't conduct electricity. Looking up, he saw that the clamps were still in place on the wires. He just hoped no one had seen or heard him, especially the mayor. He _was_ still banned from bringing his inventions into public, after all...

"C'mon Steve, let's get this thing hooked up," said Flint, grabbing the final cords that he would connect to his machine.

Flint hopped over the fence... and face-planted. Okay, so maybe he was still a little frazzled from his second zap of the morning, but the thrill of his new invention was enough to make him stand up. He dashed back to the machine and Steve stood next to him.

"Food synthesis... go," muttered Flint, as he snapped the clamps open and closed, causing them to spark. He held the clamps open and then snapped them onto the machine. It whirred to life and started glowing. The screen showed a cheeseburger again. Flint grabbed the paper plate he had kept in his lab coat and placed it underneath the machine, where the cheeseburger would end up. He then took out the bottle of water he had grabbed earlier and unscrewed it, pouring the whole thing into the machine. It started vibrating and shaking with a new energy, the cheeseburger inside coming to life. Flint smiled, ready for his life-changing invention to produce a burger. But then...

"FLINT LOCKWOOD!" The shout came from behind him. Flint whipped his head around and saw Earl galloping towards him at full speed.

Flint quickly looked back at his machine. It was rattling so violently that he feared it would fall apart. The loading bar was almost full. "Just a minute!" exclaimed Flint. He knew that Earl would try to take his machine away, so he held on tight to both of the cords connecting the machine to the power station. "I'm in the middle of a- AAAAHHHHH!"

The second Earl lunged at Flint, the machine took off like a rocket, dragging Flint in tow. He kept a death grip on the cords, knowing that if he let go, he would probably die. Flint and the machine shot through the air; Flint's screaming turning the heads of everyone in the crowd. The machine rocketed around in circles for a minute before slamming back into the street, ramming into cars and setting off car alarms. The machine then took a crazy turn and shot straight for the sardine factory. It hit the large "F" and knocked it off so that the sign now said "Swallow Alls." It went shooting back towards the crowd, Flint still screaming behind it.

Because he had no means of steering the homicidal machine, he couldn't stop it when it rammed right into a strawberry blonde girl who was talking into a camera. "Sorry!" he yelled over his shoulder, even though she probably couldn't hear him. The machine, now corkscrewing through the air, flew straight at Mayor Shelbourne. Luckily, the mayor was so close to the ground anyways that he barely had to duck. Flint and the machine flew straight over his head... and right into the monstrosity that was unveiled moments ago, called Sardine Land. He flew underneath the large tank that was holding "The World's Largest Sardine," bouncing around the support poles like it was a giant game of pinball. Flint felt his left shin smash against one of the poles, and the pain was almost enough to make him let go of the machine.

The rocket of a machine suddenly shot out from underneath the poles and right back through the crowd. Time seemed to slow down as Flint flew _right by his dad_! He swore he even made eye contact for a moment before the machine carried Flint down the street. Flint somehow managed to get upright, and he dug his feet into the road, his Spray-On Shoes digging up the pavement. He flew right into a car, shattering the windshield and getting broken glass in his legs.

And then he hit the stop sign. The cables came off and the machine shot straight up into the air, still going.

Flint felt like his face had just exploded after the head-on collision with the stop sign. Ever since breaking his nose in the car accident, any collision made it feel like it had just broken all over again. That wasn't the only thing that hurt. His chest and stomach had collided with the pole holding the sign up. As he fell on his back, he coughed and blood came out of his mouth. He wiped the blood off of his face as he stood up. Quickly taking in the surroundings, he saw that he was right back where he had originally started, and Steve was sitting next to the stop sign.

_The machine..._ Flint looked up and saw the machine's purple contrail shooting up into the clouds. That machine had been his last hope. His last hope to help everybody. But it had just gone wrong and destroyed half the town. Just like all of his other inventions. He slowly reached his hand up into the sky, as if trying to feebly grasp what had been his last lifeline. "No..."

Suddenly, out of nowhere, he was tackled by a furious Officer Earl. Flint cried out in pain as he rolled across the ground, now incredibly sore and bruised up from the rough flight. He was sure he felt blood dripping down his side now. His nose was bleeding too.

Earl lifted Flint up by his lab coat. "You're under arrest, Flint Lockwood!" he shouted, shaking Flint. Flint clutched his chest as the shake sent an icy shot of pain through his bruised and possibly broken ribcage. Earl reached into his pocket at started to pull out a pair of handcuffs. "Thank goodness you only caused minimal damage to Sardine Land!"

However, as he said that, a loud groaning sound filled the air. Everyone's heads turned to look as the giant tank full of water tipped over because of the damage to the supports. It fell on it's side, soaking everyone near it. Then it started to roll. _Everyone_ started to run at this point. Earl dropped Flint and ran to grab his son, who was well away from the danger zone to start with. Flint hurriedly stood, grabbed Steve, and started running.

"I really shouldn't be running with these!" Flint heard Brent exclaim as he ran, holding the giant scissors away from his body. Ignoring him, Flint continued to run as the giant glass ball of death chased him. He heard a crash and saw that it had destroyed what was left of Sardine Land, and it was gaining on him.

"RUN! RUN! RUN! JUMP! RUN! RUN!" shouted Steve, hopping off of Flint's shoulder and running for himself.

Flint couldn't run any longer; the pain was just too much. His legs gave out and he collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath. The giant glass tank rolled right past him, the lip of the glass barely brushing against his hair. Steve came and stood right next to Flint. They both watched as the tank hit something that caught fire and exploded, sending it flying up into the air, where all the water sloshed out of it. It came back down... and landed right on Flint and Steve, trapping them inside.

"Uh oh..." muttered Flint as he shakily stood up. The whole town had surrounded the glass bowl, screaming at Flint. Of course, he couldn't hear them from inside the glass prison, but as he scanned the crowd, his bluish-purple eyes found his father.

Tim wasn't saying anything. He just looked severely disappointed. Flint knew that once he got out of here, he would be in big trouble... _if_ he got out. He would probably be disowned. A second later, Tim turned away and started to walk through the crowd.

"Dad?" whispered Flint, walking up to the glass and pressing his hands and face against it. Tim kept walking away. Now everyone, having said what they needed to say, started to walk away too. Tim was still the furthest away.

"Dad!" exclaimed Flint, even though he knew that Tim couldn't hear him. "Dad, no please don't leave!" It was getting harder to breathe, but not from his asthma or the lack of oxygen. It was from the crushing weight of defeat. After every one of his failures, someone had been there to help him. But now his best friend was in the States and his own father had turned against him. Right at that moment, he missed his mom like never before.

In frustration, Flint banged his fist, bleeding from cable burns, into the glass wall. Suddenly, there was a cracking noise as the whole bowl spider-webbed and shattered, the glass falling in on him and Steve. Luckily, the larger pieces of glass fell around them, and Flint was only covered in small specks of glass, earning only a few cuts on his hands and neck. Steve, who had hidden under Flint's lab coat when the glass shattered, didn't even get hit.

Flint opened his eyes and saw everyone staring at him. Their gazes were filled with seething hate, and Flint especially didn't like the way Daniel was slowly reaching for Brent's scissors. Suddenly, Flint's eyes found his father. Tim was still walking away. He hadn't even stopped when he heard the glass shattering. That was what crushed Flint most of all. He staggered a bit as if he had been physically struck, but then he turned around and sprinted off towards the docks as fast as his broken body would allow, Steve following him.

By the time Flint made it to the end of the docks, tears were already flowing freely from his eyes and he stumbled to a stop, almost falling into the water. Slowly, he climbed down the boat ladder and turned around, sitting on it underneath the dock. He let out a choked sob before wiping his eyes clear.

Steve poked his head down from the dock. "Flint sad?"

"Yeah, a little," Flint choked out. His throat hurt from screaming so much, and the rest of his body hurt from the wild ride. But it was his heart that hurt more than the other injuries.

Steve swung down and sat next to Flint on the ladder. Flint sighed and rested his chin on a rung, looking down at his reflection. He looked even more pathetic than before, with cuts on his face, a bruise on his cheek, bloodshot eyes, and glass in his hair. Steve scooted a little closer and rubbed his head affectionately against Flint's arm. Flint smiled and closed his eyes... but that was when he heard the footsteps. Someone was up on top of the dock, and coming their way.

Flint huddled a bit closer to the ladder, but relaxed a little bit when he saw that it was the strawberry blonde girl that he had knocked over earlier. She looked pretty depressed as she looked at her microphone (confirming Flint's suspicion about her being on television earlier). Suddenly, she drew her arm back and flung the microphone as far as she could. It splashed down in the water about 100 feet away.

_Nice throw..._ thought Flint. He heard the girl sigh and her footsteps move, but he wasn't at all prepared to be kicked in the face. "AAAHHH!" he screeched.

The girl jumped to her feet, finally noticing Flint. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Flint, checking to make sure he didn't have a black eye. "It's just pain. I'm used to it."

"Sorry, I'm not myself today," she said, looking kinda nervous. "My whole career was just ruined by some crazy jerk riding a homemade rocket!"

Flint's eyes widened and he quickly looked away, feeling guilt start to smother him again.

"Wait a minute..." said the girl, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Flint. He thought he felt his heart stop for a minute. However, he breathed a sigh of relief (and slight annoyance) when she said: "What is going on with your feet?"

He had hoped she wouldn't notice. "Um... Spray-On Shoes," he said, holding his left foot up a bit for her to get a better look. He just hoped she wouldn't burst into laughter. "They uh... they don't come off."

Flint was thrown for a loop when the girl exclaimed, "Cool!" and proceeded to grab his foot and yank it upwards so she could get a better look at it. This caused Flint to smack his head against one of the rungs of the ladder, and it also sent another burst of pain through his leg. "This could solve the untied shoes epidemic!"

Flint's eyes widened with surprise as the girl got extremely excited, her bright green eyes widening. "What are they made of, some kind of plastic binary adhesive?" she asked.

Flint smiled. "Yeah... that's exactly it..." He never would have thought that by looking at her she would be interested in sciency stuff.

Suddenly, something in the girl's eyes changed. "I mean um... hehe, wow, they're... _shiny_!" Her face dropped into a frustrated frown. "Uh, I'm Sam. Sam Sparks," she said, releasing Flint's leg.

Because his leg was now free, Flint's entire body whipped around as it fell, and he banged his head again. "Flint Lockwood," he said, rubbing the sore spot on his head.

"STEVE!" exclaimed Steve.

The girl, Sam, gasped and went slightly cross-eyed. "Is that a Monkey Thought Translator?" she exclaimed.

"Steve!" confirmed Steve. Flint smiled at the shocked and excited look on her face.

"Incredible!" exclaimed Sam. "Did you make all of this stuff?" Suddenly, realization dawned on her face and she gasped before narrowing her eyes. "_You_ hit me with a rocket!" she exclaimed, pointing accusingly at Flint.

"You kicked me in the face!" he exclaimed.

"I said I was sorry!" exclaimed Sam. She started to go off on a rant about how Flint had ruined her career as a weather girl, but Flint was distracted as something yellow flew out of the sky and stuck to the side of the ladder. It looked like mustard. Steve swung down a bit and tasted it.

Before Flint even had time to be weirded out, something green flew past his face and landed in the water. As it sunk, he got a good look at it: a sliced pickle.

"What..." breathed Flint. Suddenly, he heard Sam stop her rant at the same time that something hit a metal barrel near the end of the short dock. Flint poked his head up and climbed onto the dock. He slowly walked over to the barrel. What he saw inside shocked him to his very core.

"Cheese?" He slowly reached down into the barrel, but before he could grab it, a Ratbird appeared out of _nowhere_ and hissed at him, grabbing the cheese and flying off. Shocked, Flint stumbled backwards away from the barrel.

"...But that must mean..." Flint stood up and turned around. He gasped, his eyes opening wide and his jaw dropping as he was bathed in orange and purple light.

Down the dock, Sam saw Flint's face and she too turned around, gasping at what she saw. In the town, there wasn't a single person without wide eyes and an open mouth. Even Steve gasped!

Flint slowly walked to the end of the dock and stood next to Sam, his mouth never closing. Excitement was building up inside of him so fast that it was getting hard to breathe, and he found himself almost hyperventilating. Out over the water, bright orange and purple clouds surged towards Swallow Falls. Beams of blue, pink, orange, red, and purple light emanated down from the clouds, which looked like a mass of giant... cheeseburgers...

And then it happened. It started raining. The next thing Flint new, it was raining cheeseburgers all around him. A small clap of thunder rumbled through the sky, and Flint finally managed to close his mouth and take a deep breath.

"Excited!" exclaimed Steve, jumping around. "Excited!"

His smile growing wider by the minute, Flint let out an excited laugh and held his hand up. A cheeseburger fell right into it. He held it in his hands for a minute before taking a bite. He couldn't believe it! It was real!

"My machine works..." he said to himself, swallowing the mouthful of burger. This was the most he had smiled since his mom died. He threw his head back and allowed himself a moment to bask in the glory. _I finally did it Mom! I finally made you proud!_

"IT REALLY WORKS!"

* * *

_A/N: And that's all we have time for tonight, ladies and gentlemen. I love love LOVE this part in the movie; it's so... powerful! And the music is amazing! It really gives you that feel of eureka, and it's just awesome! So... hopefully it won't take me that long to get another chapter up! Until then... I have to go eat a steak now. Mmmm, meat..._


	20. Meatier Shower

_A/N: Hey look, I'm updating this story! Okay, since it's been a while, I better remind you guys what just happened. It started raining food. There. You're caught up. Oh, and while I'm rambling, let me say that today I thought of a good story idea for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. In this story, all the characters get super powers. I've given everyone powers already, but I'm just putting this idea out there in case anyone tries to steal it._

_**Edit**: it seems that the last time I edited this document was about a year ago. I've completely forgotten all of everything I said up above. So... just ignore that. Anyways, I'm reviving this story, along with my other dying ones. Also, it's RSE's birthday, so happy birthday RSE!_

* * *

**Cloudy Hope**

"IT REALLY WORKED!" Flint shouted, holding his arms out in excitement as cheeseburgers fell from the sky around him. He laughed with relief and joy, breathing in the delightfully greasy smell of the cheeseburgers. He spun around a couple times, just enjoying the moment.

"Your machine?" gasped Sam. Flint looked back at her, just remembering that she was there. "Is that what that rocket was?"

"Uhhhh..." Flint guiltily looked away, blushing a bit. "Do you like it?"

Sam looked up and grabbed a cheeseburger from the air. She took a huge bite out of. "I love it!" she exclaimed, her mouth full. Flint smiled in relief as Sam buzzed around the dock. Another burger fell right in front of him, and he caught it.

"Look at this!" exclaimed Sam, still running around with her mouth still full. "This is the greatest weather phenomenon in _history_!" She ran back to Flint, bouncing with joy.

"Hey," said Flint, thinking back to Sam's rant about how her whole career had been ruined. "Didn't you say you were a weather girl?"

Sam's eyes widened and she gasped, dropping her cheeseburger. She then sprinted back towards the town, screaming: "Manny, get your camera!"

Flint laughed a bit as he watched her run off. He looked down at Steve, who was viciously devouring a cheesy slab of beef. "Happy, Steve?"

"Happy!" exclaimed Steve.

"I thought so," said Flint, laughing. He looked back towards town, wondering if he should go back. Surely nobody could be mad at him now; he had just made it rain _food_ for crying out loud! He fought with himself about it for a minute before finally deciding to make his way back.

By the time he reached the other end of the dock, all of the residents of Swallow Falls were chasing the falling burgers through the sky, many of them still with a look of awe on their faces.

Not knowing what to do, Flint slowly drifted over to Sam, who was smiling and talking eagerly into the camera that Manny was holding.

"Okay everyone, you are not going to believe this one, but I am standing in the middle of a burger rain!" Sam exclaimed, standing back and holding out her hand. As if on cue, a burger fell right into her palm. She glanced at the camera with a slightly sarcastic look on her face that immediately made Flint blush.

"You may have seen a meteor shower," Sam continued, "but you've never seen a shower _meatier_ than this!"

Flint couldn't help but smile as he looked around. Every single person now had a burger as the rain slowed to a stop. There wasn't a single person who looked unhappy... except...

Flint turned full circle, scanning the crowd. Where was Tim? Flint felt his heart start to sink, but he shook it off and snapped back to attention, focusing on what Sam was saying.

"This food weather was created _intentionally_ by backyard inventor, Flint Lockwood."

Flint went pale as he heard a voice to his left loudly exclaim "FLINT LOCKWOOD?!"

It was Earl.

Flint gulped and looked over at the group of Swallow Falls residents standing around the television store to watch Sam's report. Even Mayor Shelbourne was watching.

"Hi..." Flint gulped nervously. Not a second later, he let out a sharp yelp as he was violently tackled by Earl and pinned face-down on the ground. Earl had twisted his arm backwards and pressed his shoe against the back of Flint's head, rendering him incapable of moving without breaking his shoulder or neck.

"You're under arrest for ruining Sardine Land!" exclaimed Earl.

Before Flint had a chance to defend himself, Sam came running up, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Flint was pinned to the ground.

"Flint, those burgers were awesome!" she exclaimed. "The producer just called, and he was like, 'everybody loves that food weather'!"

"Food weather?" said the Mayor, his mouth full of burger.

"What?" exclaimed Earl, turning to look at him. Flint noticed out of the corner of his eye that the Mayor was eating several burgers that he had picked up off the ground. Gross.

"This could be even bigger than Sardine Land," finished the Mayor. Earl was so shocked at this turn of events that he removed his foot from Flint's head, instead moving it to Flint's back. Flint couldn't help but wince at the stab of pain he felt from the cut on his side because of this.

"Can you make it rain food again?" asked Sam excitedly. "Please?!"

"Well, I don't really know if I-" Flint started to say, hearing Earl stammering behind him.

Suddenly, Cal ran up out of the gathering crowd and bent down right in Flint's face. "You're gonna do it again?!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, you gotta be _kidding_!" exclaimed Earl.

Flint was quiet for a moment as the entire crowd leaned in closer.

"... Yes!" exclaimed Flint, smiling.

The crowd let out an excited cheer, and Earl let out an exasperated sigh before letting go of Flint's arm and taking his foot off of his back. Flint carefully stood up, turning slightly so that nobody could see the spots of blood starting to leak through his lab coat. He then suddenly became aware of how much of a mess he must look like with blood on his lab coat and pant leg, cuts and bruises and burns on his hands and face, and glass still in his hair.

"Okay, everybody," he said to the wide-eyed crowd. "I'm going to go to my lab and get the machine ready for tomorrow." He was met with another cheer of excitement at the prospect of a breakfast that didn't consist of sardines. A moment later, the crowd dispersed. Everyone except Sam and Manny.

"Flint..." said Sam a little awkwardly, "do you think you could... maybe... show us how you make the food?"

Flint gulped. How was he supposed to tell her that he had no way of communicating with the machine, and thus no way of making food? He didn't have time to think of a good response, because his mouth was already way ahead of his brain.

"Yeah, sure, of course you can come!"

_Shut up!_

"You might want to bring your camera too..."

_Stop it!_

Before Flint could dig himself a deeper grave, Sam stopped him with an excited squeal.

"That's great!" she exclaimed before turning to her cameraman. "Manny, film everything. We can edit it later." Then she turned back to Flint. "Okay, lead on!"

Steve jumped up on Flint's shoulder. "Food!" he exclaimed.

"Right!" exclaimed Flint, snapping into action. "This way to my lab..." he said with a little bit less enthusiasm before turning and quickly limping down the street, Sam and Manny close behind him.

* * *

"I think I can guess which house is yours," said Sam with a small laugh as they reached Flint's house, which was sitting comfortably in the shadow of his lab.

"Haha, yeah..." said Flint nervously. He was so nervous about impressing Sam that he failed to notice the second car in his driveway.

Flint unlocked the gate and shouldered it open, leading Sam and Manny through the maze of spare parts.

"How long did it take you to build that?" asked Sam, her bright green eyes wide as she looked up at Flint's lab.

"Well, I started building it when I was about seven, so... thirteen years," said Flint. "It's cool, because – oh..."

Flint stopped short when he saw Tim standing in front of the entrance to his lab.

"What's wrong?" asked Sam, glancing past Flint to see what had stopped him.

"N-nothing!" stammered Flint. "Why don't you guys wait here while I go... straighten something out..." He then turned and quickly walked up to his father.

"Hey, Dad," said Flint casually.

"No," said Tim without letting Flint explain.

Flint sighed and his shoulders slumped. "Aw c'mon Dad, please?!"

"No!" exclaimed Tim. "We both know that this was an accident!"

"I know, but-"

"Cheeseburgers from the sky? That's not natural!"

"But my invention can save the whole town!" exclaimed Flint. "You will be _so_ proud of me! Plus..." Flint glanced over his shoulder at Sam and lowered his voice, "... _there's a girl here_..."

Tim sighed, and Flint could see that he was starting to wear him down.

"Flint, can you look me in the eye and tell me that you've got this under control? And that it's not going to end in a disaster?" he asked.

_Aw crap..._ thought Flint. He tried to look at his dad, but his eyes refused to work with him, and they glanced shiftily back and forth. "... Yes?" he squeaked out.

Tim's only response was to raise his eyebrow.

_Okay, focus Flint..._ His eyes were looking down, so he slowly lifted his gaze to look at Tim. Nope. One eye decided to look up, while the other stayed put. He slowly lowered it, but as soon as he looked at Tim, he went cross-eyed.

Tim was still staring.

Taking a deep breath and focusing all of his energy on controlling his vision, Flint finally managed to snap his eyes into position so that he was looking at his dad. He was trembling with the effort of holding the position, so he quickly spit out what he needed to say.

"I've got everything under control and it's not gonna end in a disaster!" he quickly exclaimed. He then closed his eyes and doubled over, gasping for breath from the sheer effort. If it hadn't been for the few bites of burger he had managed to get, then he probably would have passed out from the effort of simply speaking.

"Alright, fine," said Tim as he watched Flint gasp.

"Thanks Dad!" exclaimed Flint, bolting upright.

"Sure," said Tim. "But you should probably go to the hospital later and get your side looked at again," he said, noticing the blood slowly soaking through Flint's lab coat and blue undershirt.

"I will," Flint said quickly, rolling his eyes.

Tim only sighed and walked towards the house.

Flint quickly pulled his inhaler out of his pocket and used it really quickly to catch his breath. Then he shoved it back into his pocket and turned to Sam.

"Okay, so Sam!" he said, getting Sam and Manny's attention. Raising an eyebrow, he opened to door to the Port-A-Potty lab entrance. "This... is where the magic happens!"

Sam glanced at Manny before glancing back at Flint.

Flint recognized the look on her face, and he backpedaled. "No no no, I meant... this is the entrance... to my lab..." He weakly gestured to the tube that ran up to his lab.

"Ah..." said Sam awkwardly, looking a little less weirded out. She and Manny walked forward, and Steve jumped up on Flint's shoulder.

"Okay, it'll probably be a bit of a fight fit..." said Flint, stepping inside and adjusting the speed of the elevator to a more normal pace instead of his favorite subsonic speed.

"I'm sure we can all fit in," said Sam as she hopped into the elevator, standing shoulder to shoulder with Flint. He kept his right arm awkwardly pressed to his side to hide the blood that had leaked out of his wound. Steve squished himself on Flint's left, and Manny squeezed himself inside, camera equipment and all.

"Okay, here we go," said Flint, giving the side of the elevator a firm kick. The kick caused the door to close, and it started the elevator. It went down much slower than Flint was used to, and it seemed like an hour before it started to turn and to up to the actual lab.

The silence was beyond awkward. It was only broken when Steve started to lick the microphone in Manny's hand, saying "Lick... lick... lick..." as he did so.

Flint was just glad he remembered to take a shower the night before. He was close enough to Sam to smell her perfume, but even though it was just a faint scent, it made him lightheaded and made his chest hurt. It took him a moment to realize that her perfume was strawberry scented, and Flint was forced to hold his breath for the rest of the ride. The last thing he wanted was to have an allergic reaction and have an asthma attack right in front of Sam.

After an eternity, the elevator stopped and Flint kicked the door open. However, the momentum from his kick made him stumble forward and out of the elevator, nearly falling over as he put pressure on his crippled and bruised left leg. He managed to regain his balance and hold the door open for the others. Steve immediately ran out, but Sam looked a bit awestruck by the purple decontaminating lights. Manny looked indifferent as always.

"What are these?" asked Sam, leaning closer to inspect the purple lights.

"These are decontaminating lights," said Flint, taking deep breaths to rid his lungs of the strawberry scent. As he did that, breathing became easier. "There was a bit of an accident a few years ago that led to the Ratbirds, and I thought it may have been caused by a virus or something, so I installed these. Right now, all of the harmful bacteria on your skin are being burned alive."

Sam raised an eyebrow and cast Flint a sidelong glance. Flint mentally facepalmed himself for saying that.

"Uh... t-the lab's this way," he said, gesturing to the curtain that looked like a high-security door. He slid the curtain open in the most dramatic way possible, revealing his lab. Steve ran into the lab and the female voice said "Welcome Flint" as it always did.

"Wow..." muttered Sam, her wide eyes reflecting the blue light of the lab. Then Flint saw her shake her head a bit as if she just remembered something. "You, uh... you sure spend a lot of time alone..." she said.

"What...?" laughed Flint nervously as Sam started to walk away. He opened his mouth to explain something – anything – when he was suddenly tackled out of nowhere, the impact almost knocking him over. Whoever it was was now hugging him.

"You crazy fluffy-haired scarecrow!" exclaimed an excited voice. Flint knew that voice.

"Emma!" he gasped out, elated to see one of his best friends for the first time in years.

"I can't believe you actually did it!" Emma exclaimed, letting go of Flint and jumping backwards, looking him over. She seemed a bit too excited to notice the blood on Flint's side and arm.

Flint cleared his throat awkwardly and gestured to where Sam and Manny stood, still shocked by Emma's sudden appearance.

"Oh, hi!" exclaimed Emma, smiling a wide lopsided smile, her greyish green eyes wide. Flint noticed that her blonde hair looked a bit longer than before, but she was wearing her favorite yellow tank-top, black pants, and boots.

"Hello," said Sam with an awkward wave.

Flint cleared his throat. "Emma, this is Sam, and that's Manny. Sam, Manny..."

Before Flint had a chance to continue, Emma jumped forward and eagerly shook Sam's hand, accidentally leaving ink-stains on it. "Emma Lockwood," she said.

"Oh," said Sam, recognizing her last name. "So you're Flint's..."

"Sister," Emma finished for her. "Well... step-sister."

"Ah," said Sam, smiling as she discreetly wiped the ink off of her hand.

"Alright," said Emma, turning to Flint. "I'll leave you to... whatever this is, and I'll see you tomorrow. You still need to tell me what the hell happened!"

Before Flint could say anything, Emma ran out the door, and Flint heard the elevator going down.

Flint cleared his throat. "Yeah, she's a little... insane. I haven't seen her in a couple years because she was in the States."

Sam nodded and smiled. "She seems nice."

The second Sam turned away, Flint breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey, what's this?" asked Sam, noticing a picture sitting on one of Flint's desks.

Flint walked up next to her and saw that she was looking at the picture that Flint had kept from his visit to Busch Gardens with Emma. "That's from the one time I went to the States," said Flint.

"Then how come I'm in this picture?"

"What?!" exclaimed Flint, grabbing the picture out of Sam's hands and looking at it. Sure enough, on the other side of Emma was a younger Sam. Flint remembered talking to some girl that day, but he hadn't been able to see her face...

"I knew you seemed familiar..." he muttered, not meaning to say that out loud.

"Really?" asked Sam. "Because you seem familiar too."

Flint shrugged. "Maybe we've met each other before?"

Sam also shrugged. "It's possible. I actually went to school here when I was little. Then my mom and I moved to New York."

Flint tilted his head to the side a bit. His memory of elementary school – especially around the time of the car accident – was incredibly fuzzy, but he did remember something... Then it clicked.

"I remember you!" he exclaimed suddenly, his purplish blue eyes widening. "You yelled at the Mayor!"

Sam's smile widened. "Yeah, that was me..." she said proudly.

"You should have seen his face," Flint laughed. "If I could remember it, then I would tell you what it looked like!"

Sam raised an eyebrow. "You can't remember?" she asked.

"Well, I can't really remember anything that happened after-" Flint stopped and went pale, realizing that he was about to reveal that he was the kid who was crippled in the most infamous car accident in Swallow Falls.

Luckily, at that moment, Steve screamed "FOOD!" and Flint remembered why Sam was there.

"Right!" exclaimed Flint, quickly setting the picture down and turning to walk over to a large wall of screens where Manny was already standing.

"Allow me to explain," said Flint, pressing a button on the wall. A picture of his machine came up on one of the screens.

"Okay," he said, "so here's how it works. Water goes in the top... and food comes out the bottom."

Sam nodded and her eyes went wide. "So when you shot it up into the stratosphere, you figured it would induce a molecular phase change in the vapor of the cumulonimbus layer!"

Flint was taken by surprise. He smiled at the thought that Sam understood. "That's actually a really smart observation," he said.

Sam's face went blank. "I mean, uh... the clouds probably have water in them," she said, doing her best to sound dumb, "which is probably why you shot it up there in the first place..."

Flint's eyes widened. "Yeah, that's why I did that... on... purpose..." He and Sam laughed awkwardly and slowly stepped away from the screen.

"O-kay," said Flint, recomposing himself. "The machine uses a principal of hydrogenetic mutation. Water molecules are bombarded with microwave radiation, which mutates their genetic recipe into any kind of food you want!" As he spoke, his computers recognized his voice and what he was saying, and they drew up a diagram that showed exactly what he was talking about.

Sam looked at the graphics. "Any kind of food?" she asked.

Flint nodded.

"So... pizza?"

"Yes."

"Mashed potatoes?"

"Yes."

"Peas?"

"Yes, that's also a food."

"Steak?"

"Yes."

"Apples?"

"Mm-hm."

"Applesauce?"

"Yes."

"Can you do a BLT?"

"I'm pretty sure I said any kind of food."

"Chicken wings?"

"Okay, well just think about what you're saying, and if it's a food, then yes it can."

"Baloney!"

"Baloney! That is a food..."

Sam suddenly gasped, her eyes wide. "How about Jell-O?"

Flint carefully side-stepped closer to her. "Do you like Jell-O?" he asked, excited to find someone else who loves Jell-O. It had been years since he last had it though...

"I _love_ Jell-O!" exclaimed Sam.

"I love Jell-O too!" exclaimed Flint. "Oh, and peanut butter! Right?"

Sam took a step back, shaking her head. "Oh no, I am _severely _allergic to peanuts."

"Hey, me too..." lied Flint. The second Sam looked away, he bit his lip. Again, his mouth was working way too fast for his brain, and he had a feeling that that lie was going to get him into trouble.

"So what's it called?" asked Sam.

"Peanut allergy," said Flint.

"No, the machine."

"Of course!"

Flint ran across the lab to his main computers. He hit another button on the keyboard, and the name of the machine scrolled across the screen.

"It's called the Flint Lockwood Diatomic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator! Or for short... the FLDSMDFR!"

Sam tilted her head to the side, obviously confused. "FLDMSMSFURVUR?"

"_FLDSMDFR_!" Flint exclaimed, turning dramatically to try and add emphasis.

Again, Sam tried to pronounce it, but she couldn't.

"FL... DS... MDFR...!" he exclaimed, carefully pointing at and pronouncing the letters a group at a time. He emphasized it so hard that he was trembling.

"Uh huh..." muttered Sam. Then she turned to Manny. "Manny, make sure you get this, he's gonna make the food now."

Before Flint could react, Manny's camera was right in his face. He scrambled backwards to avoid it, pressing himself up against his desk.

"Now...?" stammered Flint. "The thing is... I can't..." Then he got an idea. "... wait to show you this hilarious internet video!" he exclaimed, quickly bringing up the video of the kitten that Emma had sent him a while ago. Sam, Manny, and Steve were instantly mesmerized, giving Flint enough cover to slip away.

He had a plan.

* * *

"I can't believe we've been watching this for three hours!" exclaimed Sam.

"I _know_!" exclaimed Flint as he carried a few boxes across his lab. He had already designed, built, and painted a satellite device that could be used to communicate with the machine. Just as he added the large red button to an extension of his desk, something caught his eye.

His Geiger counter – the device used to measure radiation – was sitting on his bed where he had left it earlier. An idea sparked in his mind. If he was going to be working with radiation again, he would need something to tell him how much radiation the machine was emitting. He grabbed the device and popped the glass case off, taking out the piece of paper that showed him the numbers. He then quickly drew his own scale, labeling it the Dangometer. He knew that if the machine started emitting too much radiation, there was a greater chance that the food would over-mutate.

A moment later, he reassembled the device and attached it to the communicator.

"Excuse me," he said, slightly out of breath as he flung himself into his computer chair. He stopped the video, snapping Sam, Manny, and Steve out of their trance. He then began typing furiously, plugging in codes and numbers that allowed the communicator to connect with the machine, which was suspended several miles above the island, slightly out to sea. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the satellite dish adjusting a bit.

A moment later, a black screen with green words on it appeared on several of the computer screens. The words read: "Insert food code."

"It's working..." whispered Flint. He glanced at Sam and saw that she was staring wide-eyed at the computer screens, simply amazed at the possibilities.

Flint then glanced out the slightly opened window. It was starting to get dark, and Flint figured that the burgers would be enough to hold everyone over until breakfast.

"So what do you guys want for breakfast?" asked Flint, smiling slightly.

"Gummy bears!" exclaimed Steve, jumping up on Flint's desk and waving his arms around.

"Whoa! Steve, no!" exclaimed Flint. "We both know how you get around gummy bears."

"Aww..." said Steve, looking sad.

Flint turned to Sam, seeing that see was thinking of something. "Sam?"

"Hmm..." muttered Sam. "How about... eggs!"

Flint quickly caught on. "And toast!"

"Orange juice! And..."

"Bacon!" they both exclaimed at the same time.

Flint was so excited that he felt like he could kiss her. In fact, he started to close his eyes when Sam's voice stopped him.

"Uh, Flint? What are you doing?"

Flint's eyes snapped open. "Nothing," he said. Then he quickly turned around and shouted, "TO THE COMPUTER!"

Flint spun around in his chair and quickly typed in the code for the food. He then set the machine to produce the food at 7:45 in the morning so that it would reach the island at exactly 8 in the morning.

Just as he finished, Sam spoke up.

"Uh, are you sure this is safe?" she asked, a slight tremor in her voice.

"Haha, don't worry," said Flint, turning and gesturing to the communicator. "I have a Dangometer that let's us know if the food is going to over-mutate," he said, pointing at the modified Geiger counter.

"Uh, what happens if the food over-mutates?" asked Sam.

"I dunno," said Flint, shrugging. "But that'll never happen. I programed the machine with a kill code so that I can stop it if it starts to get dangerous. I've also got this." He reached under the desk and held up a small device that looked like a small satellite dish on the end of an old water gun with some fancy mechanical stuff inside. "This is an EMP device. If the kill code doesn't work, I can use this to stop the machine. It emits an electromagnetic pulse that'll fry any machine it's aimed at. These are pretty hard to make, and I almost blew myself up a couple times, trying to make this."

Sam raised an eyebrow as Flint put the EMP gun away.

"Okay," said Flint, turning back to the computer and the big red button. "This... probably won't explode."

"What?" exclaimed Sam.

His face determined, Flint hit the button. The large satellite dish on the communicator moved a bit more so that it was facing the machine, and the observatory-like roof on Flint's lab opened. The computers whirred for a moment before a message appeared on screen.

_Food Code Sent..._

"There we go," said Flint, sitting back and smiling.

"Wow..." muttered Sam. "That was incredibly awesome."

Flint couldn't hide the large grin that spread across his face as Sam used his favorite word.

Before Flint could say anything, however, Manny tapped Sam's arm. He then pointed at her watch.

Sam looked at her watch, and she looked shocked. "Wow, we've been here for three and a half hours?" she exclaimed. "Time sure flies, doesn't it..."

"Is something wrong?" asked Flint, standing up from his chair.

"No, we've just gotta go get rooms at the hotel downtown," said Sam. "It's getting close to the time limit, and if we don't get our rooms, they'll give them to someone else."

"Oh," said Flint, relieved that Sam wasn't leaving the island yet. Then a thought occurred to him. "Don't you have family here on the island that you can stay with?" he asked.

"Well..." said Sam nervously, "my brother and my dad live on the island, but there's no way I'm staying with them." As she spoke, she and Manny started to walk towards the exit, and Flint walked with them, quickly pressing a button on his computer that would automatically bring the elevator back up.

"Well, why not stay with your family?" asked Flint, walking alongside Sam.

"I haven't seen my dad or my brother in ten years," said Sam, "so it would be really awkward. And besides, my parents are divorced, and I've been living with my mom, so that just makes it more awkward."

"Ah..." said Flint. He thought about mentioning that his parents weren't together anymore, but he didn't feel like it was the right time. And besides, that would just draw more connections to the car accident. And it hurt him too much to talk about his mom...

Flint cleared his throat as they stepped into the purple hallway. "So who's your dad, or your brother?" he asked. "Maybe I know them."

Sam shrugged as she stepped into the elevator with Manny. "You may not know my dad, but you may know my brother. We're fraternal twins. His name's Daniel. Daniel Faris."

And then the door to the elevator door swung closed, and the elevator descended out of sight.

Flint stood frozen, a look of shock plastered on his face.

Daniel Faris. Was the twin brother. Of Sam Sparks.

Flint slowly turned and walked back into his lab. The second he was inside, he collapsed and curled up on his side on the floor, his chest tightening up as he had his first serious asthma attack in a year.

Starting to panic, Flint reached for his inhaler, but he couldn't seem to get it out of his pocket. Steve was running around panicking. A moment later, Flint's vision went dark.

* * *

Flint woke up a few hours later. He was laying in his bed in his lab. Looking down, he saw that his lab coat and shirt were gone, and the bloody bandages around his chest had been replaced with fresh ones. There was also a bandage around his left leg.

He also noticed that he could breathe again.

"Well, look who's back from the dead," said a smooth voice with a bit of a southern accent.

Flint looked over and saw Emma standing there. Steve was sitting pretty on her shoulder.

"Ugh, what happened?" groaned Flint, pushing himself into a sitting position and wrapping a blanket around his bare shoulders.

"I was in the middle of unpacking my stuff when this crazy monkey came through my window. He kept screaming _Flint dead! Flint dead!_ So I followed him here, and... well..." Emma shrugged and let the sentence hang.

Steve jumped off of Emma's shoulder and onto Flint's bed. He wrapped his long arms around Flint's neck, hugging him. "Better?" he asked.

Flint smiled. "Yes, Steve, I'm feeling better."

"So what was it that scared you?" asked Emma as she fished Flint's inhaler out of her own pocket and put it on the table beside his bed.

"What do you mean?" asked Flint.

"Well, the only time you ever have asthma attacks that bad is either when you accidentally get a giant strawberry in your mouth, or something scares you," said Emma. She sat down on the edge of Flint's bed. "So...?"

Flint paled at the memory. "Daniel," he said.

"Big ugly meathead? I remember him," said Emma sarcastically.

"He and Sam are twins."

Emma's eyes went wide. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

Flint shook his head. "What... am I going... to do?" he muttered to himself.

"The solution is simple," said Emma. "Just kill Daniel."

Flint's only response was a deadpan.

Emma rolled her eyes. "So what's your idea, Lockwood? What's the plan?"

"I have no idea."

Again, Emma rolled her eyes. "You're hopeless," she said. "Look, you like this girl, right?"

Flint nodded.

"So what's her relationship with her brother?"

"Well, she said she hadn't seen him in ten years, and she wasn't willing to stay with him or-" Flint stopped and slapped his hand over his mouth.

"What's wrong?" asked Emma, looking a bit concerned.

"I almost threw up," said Flint.

"Why?"

"I just realized that Dr. Faris is Sam's dad..." he muttered.

"Ugh..." muttered Emma, shuttering. "It's ironic, isn't it? The girl you've got a crush on is directly related to the two people on the island that you most fear."

"Yeah, I think I'm choking on the irony," said Flint, doubling over and resting his head on his knees.

"Well-" Emma started to say something sarcastic, but Flint stopped her.

"No, really, I think I'm gonna throw up..." He then stumbled to his feet, and Emma helped him into his bathroom, where he violently threw up for several minutes.

"Feel better?" asked Emma once Flint had stopped violently throwing up his few bites of burger.

Flint only glared.

"C'mon, scarecrow," said Emma, helping Flint to his feet. "Go get some sleep."

"Good idea," mumbled Flint, staggering back towards his bed.

"Helping!" exclaimed Steve, clinging to Flint's leg.

Flint collapsed on his bed, aching everywhere, just now feeling the pain from the cuts and bruises from his unexpected flight.

"Okay, I'll be back tomorrow," said Emma, turning the lights out. "Remember to try and eat something... and get that cut checked out. It looks like it's getting infected."

Flint just mumbled, and Emma rolled her eyes and left.

The second she was gone, Flint sat bolt upright and jumped to his feet. He ran to his computer, knowing that he would probably forget. He brought up the food input menu and ordered lunch. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He adjusted the order a bit so that half of the sandwiches didn't have peanut butter. He also made it so that some of them had different flavors of jelly; one of the flavors was strawberry, however, and he had to remember to check the flavor before eating anything.

As soon as he was finished, he realized he was exhausted and aching. He looked through the window and saw the full moon rising. The skies were cloudless now that the machine was using them.

Sighing, Flint collapsed in his bed. Steve was already asleep.

Flint got the best night sleep he had had in a very long time.

* * *

_A/N: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to RainingSunshineEverywhere! Also, did anybody see that plot twist coming? XD_


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